


just a drop of blood

by TheLadyConstellation



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: But he doesn't know that, Coming Home Again, F/M, Flash Thompson Being A Jerk, Foster Care, Peter Parker Gets a Hug, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is Pepper Potts's Biological Child, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Peter Parker meets Steve Rogers, Peter Parker was kidnapped, Peter is a Big Brother, Peter's enhanced hearing is a jerk, Smart boy Peter Parker, Stark Tower, They just want to be a normal family, You think it's not stucky but boy are you wrong, but he doesn't know that either, sad bucky, they are anything but a normal family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:00:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 34,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22640677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLadyConstellation/pseuds/TheLadyConstellation
Summary: Peter's on number fifteen, Foster homes that is. And this one's not exactly at the top of his list. One morning he gets into a bit of an accident while he's going to school, and the hospital takes blood.Peter isn't even fourteen yet and his world has gone upside down.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Michelle Jones, Peter Parker & Pepper Potts, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 63
Kudos: 956





	1. a kid named peter

“You will address me as Mrs. Dunlap and nothing else. This is a respectable house, and I won’t have you calling me by my first name. Is that clear?” Peter nodded.

“Yes, that’s clear,” He said to the woman. She’s older, older than most. Her hair is gray about two inches from the roots. Her nails are painted an ugly burgundy color and her dress goes to her ankles.

Peter followed her into a small room that contained a bed, dresser, and nothing more. He put his backpack and suitcase on the bed.

“Your school bus will be here at seven. If you aren't awake by six, you can make your own breakfast.” Peter nodded again. She left the room, keeping the door open.

“I guess number fifteen will be a bit of a stickler then,” Peter said to himself. He opened the suitcase and set it on the floor. At the bottom of the suitcase was his homemade spider suit. He was pretty proud of it. It was just his old red hoodie with a mask sewn onto it. Of course, the blue pants were a must.

He couldn’t let another one find him sneaking out. The last family he was with drug tested him almost every day because they caught him sneaking back in. That was number twelve. Fourteen wasn’t that long. They had him a month before sending him back because of ‘undisclosed reasons.’ Or, This kid doesn’t do the dishes and laundry every day.

So now he’s on number fifteen. And in his opinion, he’s a ticking time bomb. Maybe this one would be less than a month. If she catches him sneaking out…

Peter didn’t think about that.

He got his school stuff out. Thankfully, he wasn’t changing schools again. That was number eleven. It didn’t bother Peter, something he learned early on was to not get too attached. That was for everything. Families, friends, houses, schools, basically nothing is permanent when you are a very unpopular pick for foster parents.

But he was thankful he was going back to school. Even if he didn’t have friends, he still loved school. And well, he could join the football team. He would definitely have more friends that way, but if he couldn’t do that then, why should he now?

He took Beary out of his suitcase. Yeah, he knows how childish it is to still have a stuffed animal at his age. But he always assumed that his parents got it for him, maybe his Uncle Ben. Proof that they loved him that much, and other than an old picture it was all he had left of his family. He tucked Beary under his arm and opened up the old Acer laptop that his favorite family gave him for Christmas.

That was family number nine, the Carsons. They didn’t have any kids of their own, so they fostered. Super religious. They believed that them fostering ‘children in need’ would inspire God to bring them a child. And maybe it worked. Because a year into Peter staying with them, the longest he’s been with a family, Mrs. Carson got pregnant. They ended their career in fostering.

That’s what made them Peter’s favorite. They didn’t foster him just because they wanted a check from the government. The Carsons really cared about him. They gave him a freaking computer. Everyone else was, forgettable at best.

But he tried to look on the bright side, or whatever every poster in the teen room at CPS says. Something about how ‘forever family is in the rearview mirror’ or some bullshit. But Peter’s not that dumb. Because who would want a kid who has been kicked out of foster homes fourteen times in the past eleven years.

Ten years ago his parents died. His babysitter dropped him off at CPS and he started in his first home. That one was longer because people like little kids. When he got older, every time that he screwed up he stumbled closer to a cliff. And when he fell off he was in a car with a suitcase and backpack going to another part of Queens.

His routine: get up, go to school, go patrolling, sneak in through the window, go to sleep, and don’t let your current family know about it. Don’t get caught by cops or child services. Don’t get hurt because that means doctors and excuses. Number 6: Peter broke his arm. He fell down the stairs at school, or that was what he told them because, in all honesty, he was pushed.

That family, Peter forgot their name, didn’t appreciate all the extra work for a kid who has a broken arm. It wasn’t really optimal for a family who didn’t really want him.

He scrolled through the front page of google. Seeing things about which celebrity birthday is today, someone being sentenced for a heinous crime, and an anniversary. Every single year there’s something on the news and Peter hates it. Yeah, just because your kid died and you happen to be famous. Peter decided to just read the article from so long ago, because what else did he have to do?

7/09/05  
Tony Stark Son Goes Missing, Violent Scene Left Behind  
This morning Tony Stark and Pepper Potts made a statement to the press that their son Peter Stark was kidnapped from their home. Peter is three years and ten months old and is classified as missing and in a dangerous situation.  
At approximately 4:16 AM on the seventh of September, all security protocols in Stark’s Malibu home were disabled and were enabled two hours later, long after the culprit had left. The child’s bedroom was left unruly with a hint of violence, according to the police report. The bedsheets were unmade and thrown across the room. A pool of blood was left by the door with spatters leading to the window.  
Police are moving on no leads, but are working tirelessly to find the missing child.  
[image attached]  
7/07/15  
Ten Years Since Tony Stark’s Son Went Missing  
Ten years ago, there was no Avengers, Stark Tower was years in the future, and Steve Rogers was still miles deep in the Atlantic. But ten years ago, who we now know as Iron Man’s son was violently kidnapped from their home in Malibu.  
Sadly, like the fate of many missing children, Peter Stark was never found. In federal law, a missing person is considered legally deceased after seven years. The young Stark would be turning fourteen this year. Even though he is considered legally deceased along with thousands of other kids, he is still missing and tip lines are available throughout the country if any information is found.  
The Stark-Potts family denied a statement on the anniversary.

Peter sighed. That one was a downer. And really a downer considering that he shares a name with a kid who was murdered. So what else does he do other than slowly load a youtube page where he watched another vine compilation.

He watched as the clock ticked by. He slipped his spiderman suit on, putting his pajamas on top of it. He got into the bed just in time for Mrs. Dunlap to open the door. He closed his eyes.

“Sleep tight,” she said before closing the door. She almost sounded sincere. But Peter knew it wasn’t. He waited for two minutes before quietly getting out of the bed. He bunched up blankets and pillows to make a Peter-sized lump under the covers.

He slipped on his web-shooters, opened the window, and climbed out. He started swinging through the buildings of New York City.

Thanks to the crime rate in this borough, it only took Peter a few minutes to see a mugging/ assault. He couldn’t tell. But what he could see was a woman in a nice dress being pulled by this man. Peter webbed the man’s hands together and swooped in. He gently took the woman’s shoulders in his hands and stepped back with her. Once she was safe and she explained the situation, Peter webbed the man up, even more, sitting him against the wall with a note that read,

Violence against women isn’t cool, man!  
-Spider-man

He was smiling as he once again swung through the city. In the next hour, he stopped another mugging and a home invasion. And this time it wasn’t just someone who forgot their keys. He webbed them up and called the cops, leaving them a handy note just in time. That’s one of his non-official rules to being spiderman, don’t let the police talk to you. Because then they will know that you are a thirteen-year-old kid that has barely hit puberty yet.

So he swings away, and he knows that the police see him. But they didn’t hear him or see him in action. They just saw him leaving.

He stopped another assault before heading back to Mrs. Dunlap’s house. He opened the window with his webs and crawled on the ceiling. He made sure the door was shut before taking the suit off and hiding it in the suitcase. He slipped his PJs on and got a nice three hours of sleep. Not like he needed it anyway.

Peter woke up to Mrs. Dunlap yelling that he had five minutes or he had no breakfast. He jumped out of bed and got dressed at the speed of light. He threw his backpack over his shoulder and put his books in it. He made sure to throw Beary into the suitcase so Mrs. Dunlap wouldn’t see an almost fourteen year old sleeping with a teddy-bear. He ran into the kitchen. Of course, he still had to make a good first impression on his new ‘family.’ Family meaning a forty-five-year-old widowed black woman.

“I’m sorry Mrs. Dunlap. I didn’t have an alarm clock, thank you for the food,” Peter grabbed a plate and stocked up on eggs and toast. It wasn’t enough though, ever since the spider bite he’s needed more food to feel normal. But eating too much food gets you a bad note from a family. And that gets you into worse and worse homes.

“So you are going to walk to the bus stop. It’s about ten blocks down the sidewalk and then you cross onto Terrence street. It’s about six blocks that way. You’ll see it. There’s a big sign that says SCHOOL BUS STOP, so you’ll see it. The bus will take you to school. You will come straight home every day.” Peter nodded and ate his food quickly. He put on his shoes and checked to make sure everything was in his backpack before leaving. He waved goodbye to Mrs. Dunlap before walking out the door.

As he walked down the sidewalk he tried to remember what she told him this morning. Was it ten blocks, or eleven blocks? About two minutes into this brain fart he realized that he probably needed that sleep last night. He spotted Terrence Street and remembered that he is supposed to cross onto it. He ran across the street, an instinct that every kid has. He started walking down that sidewalk. There were various cars going down the street while he was walking to the bus stop.

Those cars are so frickin loud. One of the reasons Peter hates the city. The sirens are so blaring and loud. Peter doesn’t notice that he’s stumbling. He doesn’t notice until the loudness of the cars becomes quiet, and the bright morning light becomes blackness.

He wakes up in the hospital. There is a nurse right at his side.

“He’s awake. You’ve been here for about fifteen minutes, plus ten in an ambulance. Now I have a question, who are you?” Peter almosts laughs at the nurse’s tone. He coughs and stretches his arms out. He feels a bandage on his head.

“My name is Peter Parker, what time is it?”

“It’s just about eight. It looked like you collapsed on your way to school. Thing is, you hit your head and wrist. Bled pretty bad. Your wrist might get infected, so you’re here.” She checked his vitals again while asking questions.

“Can you tell me who your parents are? Where we can get some ID or a birth certificate?” She started taking his blood pressure.

“Um, I’m an orphan. So um, my foster home. Her name is Mrs. Dunlap, I can give you her phone number.”

“If you’re in foster care, then we can get to your records. Just give us a second. We’ll call your mom as well,” she left the curtained area for a second. That second lasted a God awful amount of time.

When she came back she said that Mrs. Dunlap dropped off his birth certificate and other information. Not good news. Well, the good news that the hospital knows who he is now, but she didn’t stay. Mrs. Dunlap didn’t stay. She didn’t even have a shift at work today. She just dropped the stuff and went home.

Peter guessed that number fifteen was going to be the shortest, a new record. Maybe CPS will give him a ribbon.

Meanwhile, at the nurse’s station shit just hit the floor.

“Nichole, you’re taking care of that kid who was brought in after passing out on the sidewalk, right?”

“Yeah, his foster mom just brought his birth certificate in. Ran the name through our system, he’s never been here, but he has been in the foster system for a while.” The other nurse looked at the papers in her hands again. Nicole noticed that she was sweating.

“So we ran his bloodwork. And for protocol we have to run the blood through a criminal database-”

“Shit, this kid’s a criminal, isn’t he. He’s got a warrant,” Nicole said in a thick Jersey accent that comes through when she’s stressed.

“No, it’s something else.”

\----------------------------------------

If you asked Tony right now, his life is great. He has a great wife and a daughter. She’s three years old and is the most lively kid anyone has ever seen. She loves Iron Man and Barbie dolls. Her Iron Man action figures live in the dreamhouse.

He lives in New York in the Avengers Tower, and it’s awesome. Pepper is always home because usually, she works here. SI is housed here, so Morgan gets a bedtime story. And all the avengers are her Aunts and Uncles, so that’s a plus.

Life’s pretty good for Tony. Except for the one thing that he regrets. Peter. In his mind, he always feels like he could have done more. He could have gotten more investigators, he could have looked harder, he could have done something. He was Tony and Pepper’s first kid, and he couldn’t let him go.

He still didn’t put the pictures of him up in the house. He couldn’t bring himself to do that. It was ten years ago this year. Nothing, fucking nothing. With all the resources and connections that Tony has, he could at least find a missing kid right?

That’s how he ended up on the floor of his and Pepper’s bedroom, with the picture of Peter that he keeps framed in his bedside drawer.

The last picture that was ever taken of him. It was a sunny Tuesday so Tony, Peter, and Pepper took the afternoon off and went to the park. He was so happy, so Tony snapped a picture of him smiling at the camera. His face was freckled and his cheeks rosy in the California September sun. His hair was curly from the sweat that was running down his cheeks in drops. And his hair, God that made Tony miss him. He so badly wants to run his hands through those curls. Those curls that are brown like Tony, but with just a hint of red.

He wonders what Peter would have been like if he were alive now. Tony likes to think that he would be like Tony was at age thirteen, but better. When Pepper got pregnant, Tony vowed to be a better parent than Howard was. And he tried, but he failed. Or he thought that he failed. So when Pepper got pregnant again, with Morgan, Tony stopped working as much. He got out of the public light, and when the Avengers went out, he was less likely to be with them. Less reason for someone to hurt his kids, Tony thought.

“Tony,” Pepper said. She called out to him. He didn’t even look up from the picture. “Oh Tony,” she went to his side and practically took him in her arms. She remembered the date, it’s September 7th. She looked down at the picture that he is holding. It brought a sting to her heart, just like Tony, it hurt to see him. It brought images in her mind of the bedroom torn apart, blood everywhere. “I miss him too,” she took the frame and put it back in the drawer. “Come to bed, it’ll be alright.”

Pepper had been noticing that this had been happening to Tony more often. She could tell why, because it’s happening to her too. Every single time that she sees Morgan, she sees her little boy. She sees the little kid who couldn’t stop running around. She sees the little kid with curly reddish-brown hair.

She remembers the funeral. Just a little memorial that they did seven years after his disappearance. They didn’t want many people there, for obvious reasons. Just the people that knew Peter well.

After the first few years of nothing, Tony and Pepper lost hope. In their minds, there was no way that he could be alive. They still waited though, because he wasn’t legally dead yet. Not until they found a body, which they never did.

“I love you,” Tony whispered into Pepper’s ear. They were both cuddled up to eachother, very little crying involved. There was still crying, but still.

\------------------------------

A different nurse came and took his IV out and changed his bandages. Those were bloody and gross. He wondered how hard he must have hit his head to make it bleed that much. He still felt very sleepy. The nurse coming into the room had woken him up.

“It’s alright Peter, just go back to sleep,” she said. His spider-sense was going off the walls. He couldn’t stand to have his eyes open. But he couldn’t tell what it was. Usually, it would scream, DANGER or TURN AROUND, but this time it was just buzzing. He couldn’t tell what, but something is wrong, very wrong.

But he fell asleep with his mind buzzing. The nurses, mainly Nicole and Lucille, were trying to find a solution to their little predicament. So Nicole came up with the best she could in a short amount of time.

She dialed the phone to Stark Industries and proposed the fabricated idea that they needed some bloodwork from Tony. This was obviously so they could run some tests, mainly a paternity test on Peter and Tony’s blood.

This is a risky Idea. Of course, Nicole knows this. The other nurses who were with her told her how risky this idea is. But she didn’t have any other ideas that weren’t going to cause mass panic. So she dialed the phone.

“Hello, this is Mona from the administration here at NYC hospital Queens division. During a routine system check, we found that some of Mr. Stark’s information was not collected. We need a small blood sample to complete this,” she moved the phone away from her to sigh. The voice on the other end replied quickly.

“We apologize, but we cannot authorize this action for Mr. Stark. Good Day,” she hung up on her. To be honest, that wasn’t a good idea. Lucille was glaring at Nicole. The look that said ‘I told you so,’ because of course, she did.

“We need a new plan,” Nicole said. The older nurse replied quickly.

“I will call CPS and get them over here, what you should have done in the first place,” Lucille said. She began to page CPS and tell them about the situation. They were at the hospital in five minutes.

Nicole, Lucille, the people who did Peter’s bloodwork, and two agents from child protective services are sitting in a conference room. A few seconds later, one of the highest board members of the hospital joins them. Spread out in front of them were various papers from the last ten years.

“Okay, let’s begin. We can’t keep this kid here all day without reason so we have to move quickly,” Mr. Hensington, the Vice President of the hospital said. “So we have the bloodwork of this kid who came in this morning. He was dropped off by a stranger who found him passed out on the side of the road with his head bleeding. After two hours we got his identification as Peter Parker, an orphan foster kid. But the blood came back different. Let’s look over here.” He pointed to the older papers.

“These are papers from the Malibu Police Department. This is the analysis of the blood found at the crime scene at the disappearance of Peter Stark. It checks out 100%. We tried to get Tony Stark in for a paternity test seen as a regular, ‘we need blood work,’ but that didn’t happen. So we went off of what we have. It’s a match, so this is where you come in. What do we do?” He aimed himself to CPS now. They were looking over the paperwork. They gave an agreeing look before one spoke up.

“We need to get Tony Stark over here.”

\-------------------------------------------------

Tony’s personal phone was ringing, not an everyday occurrence. Usually, he didn’t get many calls there, only if one of his friends want to bother him. The number said NY hospital, Queens. He wondered why a hospital would be calling him. But he answered anyway, just out of curiosity.

“Sweetie, please, I thought we said no phones when we are eating,” Pepper said to Tony. He put the phone up to his ear.

“Mr. Stark, is your wife in the room? Can she hear this call?” Tony responded with the honest answer that they are eating with their daughter. The caller requested that they go to a separate room. So they did. Pepper joined him in the living room. Tony put the call on speaker.

“This is Robert Pennbrooke of Child Protective Services in Queens. Today someone brought a boy into the emergency room. To make a long story short, they took blood, and the blood checked out to be the same that was found in your son’s bedroom ten years ago. He goes by the name Peter Parker and is thirteen years and 10 months old. We don’t want to overload you with information but would like you to come down here and see him,” Tony barely heard that last half of the phone call. He dropped the phone on the floor as the listened. They found him.

“Pep,” Tony breathed. He put his arms on her. “They found our baby.”

“What if it’s not… what if it’s just some fluke,” Pepper said.

“We’ve gotta try, so let’s go to Queens.” Pepper kissed Tony quickly before they dropped Morgan off at daycare. They sped off to the hospital, without anyone but themselves. When they arrived, they were met by some of the people that they didn’t talk on the phone with, but CPS. They led them to a small room where they were briefed on some of the stuff that was said on the phone, but some new stuff.

“He’s over in this room, he has a bandage on his head, but don’t worry about that. He will be shaken up. Just, go easy on him.” The social worker stood up and they followed him to a little room. The social worker opened the door. The first thing Tony saw was how empty the room is. Just an old couch, a chair, and a little table. On the chair sat a kid who, like the social worker said, was pretty shaken up.

But the second Pepper saw him. The second, she knew that is her boy. She saw the little freckles dotting his nose, the little ginger bits in his hair, and Tony’s eyes.

“Peter?” Pepper called out.

“I guess number sixteen is here then,” He didn’t even look up from the floor. He slung the backpack that was dropped off over his shoulder and grabbed the suitcase that was next to the chair.

“Excuse me?” Tony said.

“Mrs. Dunlap was number fifteen, so that makes you number sixteen.” He started walking to the door.

“Peter, please sit down,” the social worker said. Peter, looking at the ground, sat on the old couch. Pepper and Tony sat next to him.

“We’re your parents,” Pepper said to Peter.

“No, my parents are dead. They died in a plane crash when I was three years old. My whole family died on that plane. You can’t be my parents,” Peter said. He looked up and saw Pepper and Tony. He didn’t recognize them, but the articles he read only had a picture of the little kid and not of Tony and Pepper.

“Have you heard about Peter Stark?” Peter’s stomach dropped.

“I read an article about him, yeah. He’s that kid that was murdered, Tony Stark’s kid.”

“Peter lookup, look at who is talking to you,” Pepper said. Peter looked up, a layer of tears on his eyes. He locked eyes with Tony and recognized his face.

“You… You are Tony Stark? But I’m not Peter Stark, I’m Peter Parker. My parents are Richard and Mary Parker. They were on a plane with the rest of my family when it crashed and they died. I went into foster care because there was on one else,” Peter was near screaming everything he knew about his parents. “My father was an accountant here in Queens, and my Mother was a teacher. She taught first graders! I’m sorry, but you have the wrong person. I’m not your son!” Pepper put her hand on his shoulder. He flung away from it the moment her hand laid on him. He jumped off of the couch. “Don’t touch me! I don’t know you.”

Noise surrounded Peter. He felt like he was in a crowded room. He threw his hands over his ears and when Pepper tried to pull them away, she saw that his ears were bleeding. The blood had run onto his hands. Peter didn’t hear her scream. Everything was ringing. The beige wallpaper of the room felt like it was a bright yellow and the old dingy green of the couch was almost neon. He closed his eyes, but felt all the pressure around him. The crowded room. The booming sound. He fell on the ground, limp.

“Sensory overload,” Peter heard, it was muffled. He was on a bed? “His ear drum tore, but is rapidly healing itself. He’ll be fine in an hour, just… give him some space.” Peter didn’t know how close they were. Were they talking about him? He opened his eyes, the room was super dim. He was pretty thankful that the room was dim, because the last thing he remembered was the bright, neon colors flooding the room.

Yeah, this isn’t the first time this has happened. Shortly after he got bit by the spider, he started having these episodes where everything would flood him at once. It was hard to handle, and especially when he was at school or things were stressful, it would be much worse.

He didn’t remember the events of the past hour. He didn’t remember Tony and Pepper, but he was about to. The door opened. A doctor came in.

“Peter?” His voice was quiet, soft. He looked around. His vision was still really bad after that whole incident, as it always was.

“Are you the doctor? Because all I can see is your lab coat, and all I’m really sorry. Sometimes that happens, and I didn’t want to waste anymore of your time, and…”

“Peter, stop,” Peter shut up pretty quickly. The faded doctor sat down next to him. “Peter, can you see me?” Peter shrugged.

“A little bit, everything is a bit hazy,” he said.

“They gave you a sedative, drink some water. You’ll feel better. You’ve been in and out of consciousness for a bit, drink some water.” The shadowy figure put a glass of water onto Peter’s lips. He sipped on it for a moment, his vision becoming clearer every minute.

“Can you see me?” Peter nodded, but not yet looking at him. He looked up, his head was still heavy. “Peter, do you remember what happened?” The face was still blurry, but it was clearing quickly. Peter tried to remember what happened. Something in a small room. There was a man and a woman, probably his new foster parents. Peter was finally able to make out facial features. It took him another minute to fully recognize the face.

“You… You’re Tony Stark, oh. Yeah, I’m not ...” Peter suddenly remembered. He remembered everything that happened in that little room. He remembered Tony and Pepper telling him that they are his parents. He remembered that it can’t be true, but part of him thinks that it might. Tony put his hand on Peter’s shoulder.

“Peter, I’m your dad, you’re my son. You were taken from our house ten years ago. You have an amazing mom who works so hard, and you have… You have a sister, and I can’t wait for you to meet her.”


	2. home

Admittedly it took Peter a bit to understand. They had to show him all of the test results, the first one linking him to the police database, the parental and maternal tests, along with fingerprint tests. It was a whole twenty four hours until he began to accept that maybe these are his real parents. 

Peter, Tony, and Pepper are sitting in a conference room at the hospital. They were working through the evidence of Peter’s disappearance, and what they should do now.   
“But what about my birth certificate? It says that my parents are Mary and Richard Parker,” Peter said. 

“It’s almost definitely a forgery, or perhaps the real one…” Tony’s voice faded off. 

“What do you mean the real one?” Pepper asked. Peter was about to, but she stole his question away. 

“There almost definitely was a Peter Benjamin Parker, but I theorize that he went down with that plane. There isn’t anything about his body being identified, but he was pretty young. That’s probably his birth certificate,” Tony said. Peter looked at his birth certificate. 

“Can we find out if I, he was on that flight?” Tony looked at his computer. He started typing. 

“What are you doing?” Pepper asked, Peter was going to ask but Pepper spoke first. 

“Don’t question me when I am breaking the firewall of John F. Kennedy Airport,” Tony said, smiling. Pepper’s face was slightly distraught, she was used to this. 

“What day did your- Mary and Richard die?” Tony asked as he typed. 

“August 29, 2005,” Peter said without a beat. Pepper shuddered. That was barely a week before Peter went missing. 

“I should have guessed. I know it will be hard, but tell me everything you’ve been told about that day. Who was on that plane, mainly,” Tony said. Pepper started writing things down. 

“Mom and- sorry, uh, Richard and Mary were taking Uncle Ben and Aunt May, well I guess they aren’t my Aunt and Uncle anymore…” Pepper put her hand on Peter’s shoulder. 

“It’s okay, it’s okay for it to feel weird. Just, take your time.” Peter nodded and kept going. 

“They were taking May and Ben on a trip because they had just gotten married, so they were taking them to the beach. They didn’t take me.. Or him, because what good was a three year old when you’re going to a resort.” 

“So there were four people on the plane, makes this easy.” Tony kept typing. He stopped and let out an involuntary sigh. 

“Did you find something?” Pepper asked. Tony nodded. 

“Richard Parker bought five tickets,” Tony said. Pepper’s face fell in her hands. She couldn’t tell if it was because that was the last step of confirmation that this is their boy, or because that was a child, a three year old boy that died. 

Peter also realized in that moment. He realized that this wasn’t a mistake, this wasn’t a fluke of science, these are his parents. 

“Peter? Are you all right?” Pepper asked. 

“You… You’re my parents,” Peter said. Tony smiled. 

“Yeah, kid, we are.” Peter smiled for the first time in days and Tony saw something he never thought he would see again. He saw his baby boy’s smile. That same toothy smile that even years of hurt could never break. Tony had to get up and hug him. To even his own surprise, Peter hugged back. 

Peter was scheduled to move into the tower that Monday. He had been staying in the hospital since Wednesday. He was fine, medically, but the hospital stay was more for them to ride out the initial shock. And of course, to work with police and the doctors. There was a lot more work that went into this than Peter thought. 

But it was finally Monday. And Peter was standing at the back of the hospital with Tony, Pepper, and this new guy he hadn’t met yet. 

“Who are you?” The man was fat, but Peter wouldn’t say that to him. He had facial hair kind of like Tony’s. He’s standing by a car. Peter guessed that he was going to Tony’s house in that. The man didn’t say anything, he just brought Peter into a hug. 

“Hap, give him a break. He won’t remember you,” Tony said. He was behind Peter now. 

“I’m Happy, uh, Hogan. I was Ton- your dad’s bodyguard and security stuff, but now I usually just drive him around. It’s really great to have you back. Last time I saw you… well, I was taking you home from a day at the park.” 

“Hap,” Tony interrupted. Happy stopped abruptly. 

“Here,” Happy said. He opened the door to the back seat. “Sit in the middle. We’re on back roads, but we still don’t want to risk anyone seeing you.” Peter scooted into the middle, Pepper on his left and Tony on the right. Peter’s bags are in the front seat. Pepper and Tony put their hands on Peter’s. 

“You ready? It’s okay if you aren’t ready,” Pepper said. She held Peter’s hand. 

“I think I’m ready. And I’m sure ready to get out of that hospital.” Peter laughed at himself. Tony made sure everyone was buckled in before Happy began driving. 

They took the back way to the tower. It was longer, but the first ten minutes were spent in silence. Happy, the wonderful person he is, broke the silence. 

“You know, Pete. I used to drive you around just like this. You wouldn’t sleep at night, and your father needed to sleep. Of course he wouldn’t. But the only thing to put you to sleep would be driving. I would drive you around. You would fall asleep and not cry anymore. I loved those moments,” Happy said. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t remember anything about you guys. I didn’t even know that you are my parents. I didn’t know your name or any of you,” Peter said. He was close to tears. Pepper put Peter’s face on her shoulder. 

“I wouldn’t expect you to. No one remembers anything from when they are a baby,” Pepper says. Peter kind of smiles at that. He felt really bad that he didn’t remember these things, like Mr. Happy driving him around. There was more silence, but this time Peter spoke up. 

“Why would someone take me? I was just a baby.” Pepper stared forward blankly. 

“I-I don’t know,” Pepper said in her daze. Tony reached over to touch her, comfortingly. 

“Peter, It’s my fault. I’m your father. And sometimes people want to hurt other people. I haven’t been the best human on Earth, and people want to hurt me. So they hurt you in the process,” Tony said. Peter understood.

“Like those people who kidnapped you in Afghanistan, oh I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that up, I’m so sorry Mr. Stark,” Peter started babbling on. Tony stopped him. 

“Yeah, it’s exactly like that. Four years after we lost you. I finally started- started going out again,” Tony instantly regret what he said. 

“Hey, Ton. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Happy said. He turned on the music. Back in Black started playing. Definitely an orchestrated plan by the driver.

“I love Led Zeppelin!” Peter exclaimed. Pepper laughed and Tony put his face in his hands. 

“Maybe you aren’t my child,” Tony said, laughing. Peter blushed a deep red, becoming flustered quickly. 

“I’m sorry Mr. Stark, I don’t listen to a lot of music.” 

“It’s alright, and you don’t have to call me Mr. Stark, even if you don’t want to call me Dad yet. And please don’t call her Mrs. Stark, she hates it.” Pepper laughed. Peter saw that they were approaching the back of the tower. They went into the garage and through many levels of security. 

“We’re here,” Tony said. Peter sighed. He slid out of the car. Pepper held his hand, “It’ll be okay. We’re right here.” Happy held his suitcase in the elevator that only went up to Tony and Pepper’s penthouse. 

Peter was shaking, but his spidey-sense wasn’t bothering him now. This was all human, this wasn’t that stupid spider that bit him. This was Peter being afraid, but he didn’t know what he was afraid of. 

“I’m scared,” Peter blurted out suddenly. Tony pressed some buttons on the wall of the elevator. It slowed down dramatically. 

“It’s just us in here, buddy, why are you scared?” Tony said. Peter leaned against the wall of the elevator. 

“The thing is, I don’t know. I just feel scared. Everything is changing, and I don’t know what to do. Just a week ago I was in the back of a social worker’s car on the way to num- Mrs. Dunlap’s house. Now I’m in Stark-freaking-Tower and apparently I have parents who are alive. And apparently I was kidnapped when I was a toddler. I don’t know, I’m just scared…” Peter’s voice faded away. Tony pulled him into a hug. 

“I’m sorry, I’m really sorry. This is my fault. It’s going to work out, I promise. I’ll do everything I can,” they stayed there. Just hugging and being there. Tony was crying, obviously, as was Pepper. 

“I love you so much, Petey.” 

Crying woke him up. Not something that happened every night. He and Pepper thought they were out of that stage. But there was crying. And it was coming from Peter’s room. Pepper was about to get up, but Tony waved her back down. He walked through the darkened halls of their Malibu mansion. He looked in the little room. 

“Petey?” Tony said as he stepped in. He saw the little kid, huddled on his bed. His knees were on his chest and he was covered in sweat. “Oh, buddy. Another nightmare?” Peter was crying, but it was a silent cry. Only light whimpers can be heard by Tony. He sat down on the bed next to the crying three year old. 

The thing is, this isn’t the first time this has happened. Ask any parent, nightmares don’t only come once. They return, and quite often. 

Tony sat down next to Peter. He scooped the shaking little body into his lap and hugged it tightly. 

“It’s okay Petey-pie. Dad’s here now. Nothing can hurt you. There are no monsters or scary creatures out to get you. I’m here.” Peter’s little head curled into Tony’s side. Tony started humming along to a melody he didn’t know. He wiped away Peter’s tears. 

“Mommy Daddy bed,” Peter whimpered. Tony knew what he wanted. 

Usually after a really bad nightmare, Peter needs to be in Pepper and Tony’s bed. It comforts him. Tony stood up with the little lump of child in his arms. He walked down to his and Pepper’s room. Setting Peter down in the middle of the bed he got in next to him. 

“Goodnight, Petey-pie,” Tony said as he kissed his son goodnight. 

“Petey-Pie?” Peter whispered to himself, and he didn’t really know why. Tony didn’t hear it, and neither did Pepper. But when Tony called him that, he felt something. He didn’t know what, and he really didn’t know if it even existed, but there was something. The elevator doors opened. 

“This is our penthouse,” Tony said. He sneakily wiped his tears from his eyes. Pepper took Peter’s hand and took him into the main area of the apartment. 

“I want you to meet someone, Jarvis?” Tony said that name and a voice came out of the walls. 

“Yes, boss?” Peter jumped back. Pepper caught him. 

“Peter, I want you to meet Jarvis. Or well, re-meet Jarvis. He’s an AI that lives in this building and with me in the iron man suit. You can ask him for anything, from getting around the tower, to turning on the lights.” 

“Jarvis, you know Peter. And I think it’s time that you meet him again.” Peter was looking around, trying to find where this voice is coming from. 

“Oh young master Stark! It has been a long time since you have been here,” Jarvis said. Peter was still very confused on how this computer could be excited to see him. Or how he could see him in the first place. 

“Um, hi,” Peter said. 

“Do you want to see something cool?” Tony said. Peter nodded and followed him. But Tony turned around, right back into the elevator. 

“Jarvis, shut the doors,” Tony said to the AI. The elevator doors promptly shut. 

“This place, Avengers Tower is one of the most secure buildings on the eastern seaboard. Second to the pentagon. So the most secure areas can only be accessed by certain people. This is through bioscan. You probably didn’t see me put my hand against this wall here. Here, you do it. Just press your hand against this screen,” Tony said. Peter nodded and did what he was told. 

Peter put his hand against the glassy screen. A green light ran over his palm. The voice from the wall spoke again once it was done scanning his hand. 

“Biometric scan complete. Stark, Peter. Welcome Home, Pete.” On the glass screen his name came up. Well not his name, but his name. A photo was also there. But it didn’t look like any picture of him, if there were any. It was a picture of him as a little kid. It hadn’t been changed. Well, how could they change it? They hadn’t seen him in ten years. 

“Is that- is that me?” Tony and Pepper were behind him, smiling like idiots. 

“That’s you, Pete. We never took it out of the system. And handprints don’t change from when you’re a baby,” Pepper said. She brought him into a hug. 

“Do… Do I have a room here?” Peter asked. He didn’t even know why he asked that. It was such a dumb question. 

“You do, actually. Let’s go see it. It’s pretty empty, just some furniture, but we’ll decorate it once you’re moved in,” Tony said. Moved in, the words repeated in Peter’s head. He couldn’t tell if it was the confirmation that he was in fact going to live here, or that he had to break the news that everything he owns is in the suitcase he’s holding. 

The suitcase, even that was a lie. He was always told that it belonged to his uncle. But that guy wasn’t his uncle. He never was, and now he’s dead. Peter’s mourned these people for years, but they never raised him. They never even laid eyes on him. He stole the identity of their dead son like he never existed. 

“Peter, are you alright?” Pepper asked. Snapping out of his daze, he looked up at her. 

“This is all my stuff,” Peter said. He motioned to the suitcase. 

“That’s it?” Tony sounded shocked. Peter put the suitcase down on the bed. He opened it, but shut it immediately. “Do you not want to unpack?” 

“I’ll do it later. And I’ll need a new suitcase. This one…. I shouldn’t have it anymore.” Tony and Pepper didn’t question it. 

“Of course, we will get you clothes and new bedsheets and anything. We… actually have some of your old stuff. After… um… we put it in a storage place. Now it’s here, in the basement,” Pepper said. Tony was on the other side of the room. 

“What… kind of stuff?” Peter asked, because he really didn’t know what to ask. 

“Like, your old Toys and clothes. A lot of stuff was returned because after the case closed it wasn’t evidence.” Peter’s heart dropped in his chest. He didn’t think about that. He doesn’t even know what it looked like when he was taken. All he knows is from one of those articles he read. Apparently it was a ‘violent scene’ whatever that means. 

“I guess that’s a good idea. Maybe I’ll remember something,” Peter said. He turned the suitcase the other way, facing him, and opened it again. The dresser drawer was opened, the spidey-suit going in first. Peter would soon have to find a hiding spot for it. 

The rest of the shirts and pants were put into the drawers, not like there were very many of them. His comb and toothbrush were then taken out. Then he saw the picture frame. He frowned at it. He put it on the bed. 

“I guess I don’t really need this anymore,” Peter said. Pepper and Tony looked at the framed photo. His eyes widened when he saw the faces. There was no Peter in it, but it was probably before he was born. “I thought it was the only thing left of my family, but even that was a lie,” Peter breathed, “I just don’t know what to do with it now.” 

“You can still keep it, just because you know us as your biological parents doesn’t mean you can’t give all of those memories,” Pepper said. Tony was still quiet. Peter thought for a second before putting the picture frame in the small drawer with his socks. He desperately didn’t want to look at that photo right now. 

“You kind of look like her Miss. Pepper,” Peter said in a light voice. 

“What?” She didn’t know if she wanted Peter to repeat himself or explain, or both. 

“She was a redhead, not like I ever met her,” Peter said. Pepper sighed as Peter refocused his attention to his suitcase. There was practically nothing left in it, as it was mostly empty when he began to unpack. Some may call it minimalist living, but Peter calls it involuntary minimalism. He set the suitcase on the floor, and then set Beary on the pillows of the queen sized bed. He sat down on it. By far the softest bed he’s ever sat on. He almost forgot that his biological parents were in the room. 

“Oh and my computer is in my backpack, along with my school stuff. Crap, I bet it broke when I fell.” Peter knew what Tony and Pepper were going to say. Oh we’ll get you a new computer, we have plenty of those.

“Is that Beary?” Pepper’s voice invaded Peter’s thoughts. 

“What?” 

“Tony, look. That’s Peter’s bear. We never found it after he was taken, you have Beary.” Tony looked over from what looked like deep thought. His eyes became like black holes when he saw Peter on the bed. Memories flashed back to him. Of Peter cuddling Beary while he read him a bedtime story. 

“You had him all this time didn’t you,” Tony said. He came closer to Peter. Once he was about a foot away from the bed he looked even closer. The bear had worn down, its color was faded. Tony sat on the edge of the bed. He picked up the toy. 

“It feels like it belongs to someone else,” Tony said after a deep breath. It felt like this teddy bear had been stolen from his dead kid, and that his Peter wasn’t the one sitting right in front of him. But when he looks at him…. There’s no denying it. He looks like Morgan, and Morgan looks like him. Peter’s little curls on the top of his head and the red tint in them. “But it doesn’t,” Tony said. He pulled Peter into a crushing hug. Peter hugged back, tears in his eyes. In all honesty, the whole room was flooded with tears. Pepper joined in the hug, holding her boys. 

“We got that when you were born. There were all these ‘things’ that people had given us or we had bought, but you didn’t have a simple teddy bear. So we got Beary,” Pepper said after the hug was disbanded. Peter hugged the bear even closer to him. 

“They…. At CPS they told me that I brought it with me when my babysitter brought me in. I… I didn’t know…” Peter wasn’t forming coherent sentences anymore. He was becoming a mushy mess on the queen sized bed. Eventually, he lay on his stomach, not speaking. 

“Here, rest. You’ve been through a lot today. We’ll go into the basement later,” Pepper said. They started to make their way to the door. 

“Can you lay with me?” Peter asked. Tony smiled. 

“Of course bud,” Tony said. They lay down next to Peter, Pepper on his left and Tony on the right. Peter’s head was on Tony’s chest. The father put his arm around Peter, watching as he curled into his body. Because somewhere inside of Peter he remembers this. He remembers his dad and even if he doesn’t know it


	3. red hair bows

“So I have a sister?” Peter asked. He was sitting with his newly found parents in one of the living rooms of Tony and Pepper’s quarters. They woke up from their little nap

“Yeah, she looks just like you. She’s four, and is a giant ball of energy. But she’s with Rhodey now,” Tony replied.

“When can I meet her?”

“I… I don’t know… We didn’t think you would be ready. Are you ready?” Peter thought for a minute.

“Is she ready? Does she know what’s happening?”

“A little, she’s been told that she has a brother. We told her that you were missing for a very long time,” Tony said. Of course they told Morgan about her brother, because why wouldn’t they? There were pictures around the house of Peter so she has always thought of her brother like she’s grown up with him.

“I think she would want to meet you, knowing that you’ll live with her for quite a while,” Pepper laughed.

“I’ll call Rhodey, he can bring her up tomorrow. You’ve had a lot happening today, and I want you to be well rested, especially after we go through your things in the basement. Let’s go,” Tony said. He took Peter’s hand and led him to the elevator where they went to the storage space in the basement.

“If it’s too much just tell us, we’ll leave,” Pepper said before taking his hand. The elevator door opened and they faced the open space of the basement. The room was unruly and covered in stacked boxes.

“Do you come down here often?” Peter asked.

“No, If you can't already tell, it’s not well tended to.” Pepper led them through the basement.

“Jarvis? Can you lead us to section P4?” Pepper asked. The AI responded with directions that they followed.

“Most of this stuff was in evidence, but seven or so years after they closed the case. We got all the stuff back, cleaned of course.”

They reached a corner of the basement with a few boxes piled up. There was a sheet covering most of them. “This is it then,” Peter said. Tony nodded and pulled the sheet off of the boxes. Peter picked up the first one and sat down. He opened the lid of the high-tech tote and looked inside. “Clothes,” Peter said. “I don’t know how much I will remember about clothes.” He grabbed the first shirt he found. It was black with the Stark Industries logo on it. On the back of the shirt was a name and number like a jersey. It said STARK with the number 05 on it. “Pretty cool, don’t think it would fit me anymore.” Pepper chuckled. Peter grabbed the next shirt along with the next. This one had some toys in it.

“Star Wars action figures! Awesome!” Peter got out the little toys. He could tell that they were old, and well used.

“These were mine when I was a kid,” Tony said. He looked at the figurines in Peter’s hand. He was holding Greedo, Han Solo, and Luke Skywalker. “We used to play with them, If you look in there you’ll find my Millenium Falcon.”

“You have the Millenium Falcon!” Peter shouted. Tony rummaged around in the box and pulled out the spaceship. Peter immediately got very excited.

“This is awesome! I used to have a Darth Vader action figure but it got taken… There’s a new Star Wars movie coming out at Christmas… do you want to see it?”

“Of course Pete, I would love to see it with you. I guess you want these in your room then?” Peter nodded and put the action figures back in the box. They began to go through the rest of the boxes. After coming across a few duds, they started to find more toys. Peter pulled out a little lab coat with safety goggles. Peter held it in his lap. He just stared down at it. In little embroidered letters it read, Peter Stark, junior scientist.

“Peter? Is something wrong?” Pepper said.

“I remember wearing this,” Peter said. The embroidery felt soft on his fingers. The coat had the Stark Industries logo on it as well. “How would I remember wearing this? I don’t even remember you being my parents. How would I remember this?” Peter stared down at the jacket, his eyes never left its sight.

“What do you remember Peter?” Tony said, putting his hand on Peter’s shoulder.

“A giant gray table, big shoes, and this….” Peter pulled three tiny plastic beakers out of the box. “These…” Peter’s voice cracked, tears began to flow.

“Petey…. I would take you into the lab. We got you a little lab coat so you could look like Dad while I worked with Bruce for my degree. For your birthday we got you a junior scientist kit. I can’t believe that you remember that,” Tony said. He picked up one of the plastic beakers and fiddled with it in his hands.

“I just… can’t believe that you remember something,” Pepper said. “You were so young, I never expected you to know anything about your past.” Pepper put her arms around Peter, pulling him close to her.

“I love you guys, but we still have loads of boxes to go through here,” Peter said as he wiped his tears away. Tony and Pepper did the same to their wet eyes. The rest of the boxes were easier, well as easy as this can get.

_“Goodnight Petey-pie,” Pepper said. Tony followed suit and said the same phrase after his wife did. They both kissed Peter’s forehead. Peter smiled._

_“I love you mommy and daddy,” Peter said. He kissed Pepper’s cheek. She got up and put the picture book that they read to him away. She looked back to her son who was cuddled up in layers of blankets, holding beary close to his chest. She turned off the lamp, going to the door soon after._

_“Goodnight,” she whispered before closing the door._

_“He’s so cute, Pep,” Tony said. “I can’t believe that we have a kid as smart and as cute as him.” Tony put his arms around Pepper and kissed her cheek. “Maybe we could have another one someday.” Pepper laughed._

_“Tony, you are working on a phd. We run a company and cannot deal with another child half as energetic as Peter,” Pepper said. Tony chuckled and kissed her face. He touched her stomach with loving strokes._

_“I love you,” Tony said. Pepper could hear in his voice a happiness. It was a happiness that doesn’t come very often. He’s been through so much. He started having panic attacks ten years ago, and it only got worse when he was almost killed for the first time. And then the second._

_But now, he can sleep again. Pepper isn’t being woken up because her husband is thrashing in his sleep. She isn’t waking up to an empty bed because Tony is in the basement working because he couldn’t fall asleep. She’s going to bed with her husband and sleeping all night, curled up to him._

_“I love you too,” Pepper said._

_Things didn’t stay too happy after that night_

_Tony read the systems log the next morning, after well everything. It was the first thing he did. He didn’t know what else to do. So he checked the system. There was no doubt_

_[1:34:26 AM: Security Systems Disabled]_   
_[1:35:15 AM: JARVIS AI Disabled]_   
_[1:46:55 AM: Security Systems Online]_

_Yeah, this isn’t good._

“I can’t go out tonight,” Peter said to himself. “I can’t sneak out of this house, they will be scared out of their minds.” He was pacing around the room. That room that is so big. Peter looks at the dresser. Everything he owns is in there. It’s not in Ben’s suitcase. He can’t keep that suitcase anymore. It’s all that’s in his head. Peter started to wonder how he would protect Queens if he is living in Stark Tower.

He was never from Queens. He is from California. He was born in California. He was stolen from his family.

“Stop it, get out of my head. We have a family now,” Peter said. Sometimes nasty thoughts come into his head, so he yells at them. Peter opens the dresser drawer and grabbed his pajamas. A shining glass frame shined back at him. Peter grabs it. He takes one last look at his ‘family’. These people that he’s worshipped his entire life, the people who he believed to be his parents. He takes the frame in both hands before taking the photo out. His fingers rested at the top of the photograph. It fell to the floor in torn pieces. Peter screamed at the wall, throwing the picture frame at it.

He opened his eyes, out of his moment of rage to see glass scattered on the floor. “Shit,” he whispered, going to the dresser and grabbing a T-shirt. He swept up the shards of glass along with photograph and balled up the shirt, putting it in a corner to deal with later.

He pulled the blanket back on the bed to see that there was another blanket there. He put his hand down, they were so soft. They were clean and soft and on this huge bed. There were so many pillows that Peter spent about five minutes throwing them all off. He finally got into the bed, one pillow under his head. He grabbed Beary from under a pile of blanket that he had bunched up.

“At least something is actually mine,” Peter said, looking at the bear. He hugged Beary close to him and closed his eyes. Peter’s always been a light sleeper, but exhaustion got the better of him after an hour.

“That’s new,” Peter said. He woke up to something that he’s never woken up to before. Silence. He sat up on the giant plush bed and swung his legs out. A pang of hunger hit him dead in the stomach. A regular occurence after the spider-bite. He walked to the door but remembered that he has his own bathroom, not one that he has to share with anyone. He found the door on the adjacent side of the room. He opened it and was presented with one of the largest bathrooms he’s ever seen. He didn’t even bother looking around for anything. He used the toilet and splashed his face with water before leaving.

He walked around the kitchen sluggishly. He didn’t know where anything was, much less a box of cereal. He started to look around the cabinets, trying to find at least just a bowl. He had completely forgotten about the AI that lives in the house. He found flour, sugar, cups, and anything that isn’t a bowl.

“Peter?” He froze at the sound of Tony coming into the kitchen.

“Oh my god Mr. Stark I am so sorry. I was looking for a bowl, I didn’t want to… I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to intrude!” Peter closed the cabinet door and backed up slowly. Tony put his hand out on Peter’s shoulder.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. You’ve done nothing wrong. I was going to come out and make breakfast, but it looks like you beat me to it,” Tony said. He reached above and grabbed a copper pan. “Can you open the fridge and grab eggs? Pretty easy to find. If you can’t, just ask Jarvis.” Peter laughed.

“I forgot about him, and It is a little weird to have a robot know where your eggs are,” Peter said.

“AI, not robot. Dum-e is a robot. Jarvis is an AI.”

“Who’s Dummy?”

“Nevermind,” Tony replied. Peter opened the fridge, navigating his way through the maze of foods. He finally found the carton. Once he handed over the eggs, Tony began to beat them.

“How many do you want?”

“Uh, five,” Peter replied. Tony raised his eyebrow but didn’t question.

“A growing boy needs his eggs,” Tony said as he began to scramble them. There the two sat in silence for a while until the younger spoke.

“When are people going to find out?” Peter said. Tony froze in his place at the stove. He attempted to slow his breathing because if he was being honest, this was also something that was on his mind, constantly.

“What do you mean find out?” Tony asked, continuing to make breakfast.

“Like there are all these articles and stories about when Peter Stark went missing. Someone’s bound to find out eventually. I mean, I have to go back to school at some point.” Tony sighed. He knew that this was coming. Of course Peter heard about the disappearance before this whole debacle, and the media loves a happy story.

“We aren’t ready for that yet, and I don’t think you are either. You haven’t even met Morgan yet. And when we do tell the public it’ll probably be low-key. You know like, ‘Tony Stark’s son has been found and is rejoining the family’ something like that.” He took the eggs and poured them out onto the plates.

“Where’s Miss Pepper?” Peter asked, starting to eat his pile of eggs.

“She’s in a meeting, time zones a bitch right?” Tony laughed, went to the fridge, and grabbed the orange juice along with two glasses. “You want some?” he asked. Peter nodded. Tony poured him a glass. He chugged it down along with his eggs.

“I guess you really are a growing one,” Tony said. He patted Peter’s shoulder lightly. He finished his eggs and juice a handful of minutes after Peter finished his.

The kitchen door swung open, the clicking of high heels flooded the room. Tony stood up to greet his wife. She gave him a quick kiss before wiping off all her makeup.

“How was your conference, darling?” Tony asked. Pepper went limp in his arms, a usual occurrence after a late night turned into an early morning. Fingers cascaded her back in a comforting motion.

“Long, but I’m glad to see my boys.” She detached from Tony, going to Peter and kissing his forehead. “Good morning, sweetie,” she said. Pepper sat down with them, grabbing a banana for herself.

“Peter, are you sure you’re okay with meeting Morgan today?” Pepper asked. Peter nodded without another thought.

“I want to know who my sister is,” Peter replied. He stood up with his plate and went to the sink. He washed the dish off and put it away.

“You didn’t have to wash your plate, we have a dishwasher,” Tony said. Peter shrugged. A picture frame rested above the sink. I guess that’s her, Peter thought. The photo had Tony, Pepper, and a little girl posing in what Peter assumed was a photo studio. The photo looked amazing. Another was a black and white photo of a baby. For a moment, Peter thought that the baby could have been him, but the bow at the top of her head gave it away.

“It’s fine, I usually wash the dishes any way.” Peter smiled. He went into his room to get changed. Opening the dresser he was presented with the same options that he has every day. A pair of jeans and one of his six shirts. The nice shirt, a blue polo. He slipped it on and brushed his hair out of his face. He pondered for a minute before reaching to his backpack. Hesitating, he opened the laptop. It wasn’t shattered, but a crack was down the middle. Peter held in the power button, relieved when the screen lit up.

“I’ve still got you, buddy,” Peter said. He did a quick google search because curiosity can control the mind. In the search bar he typed, Tony Stark son. He filtered by most recent, nothing. Peter Stark, nothing. He gave a sigh of relief, No one knows… yet.

The clock read 9:00, he should head back out to the living room… or whatever that giant room is called. He closed the laptop, opening his door and leaving.

“Hey, uh, when is, um Rhodey getting here? I think that’s the name you said.” Tony nodded.

“He’s about ten minutes away. If you ever need to step away just do what you need to do. This can be hard,” Tony said. They had a little talk with a therapist before they took Peter home, he gave them some simple advice. A few one liners to help him adjust. Peter took a few deep breaths. What am I worrying about? There’s nothing terrible about meeting your sister. She shares your blood.

He took another deep breath. They would be here in five minutes. He wondered what the little girl looked like. The photograph by the sink could be old, she could have grown. He sat there still in his seat, waiting, hiding in his own thoughts.

“They’re downstairs,” Pepper said after taking a look at her watch. A few moments later the elevator doors opened. Peter nearly jumped at the almost silent sound. Tony and Pepper were right by the doors. Tony gave the older man a hug.

“Mo! I missed you!” Pepper shouted, grabbing a tiny figure that ran into her arms.

“Mommy! I miss you too,” the little girl responded. That’s her, Peter’s head reminded him. He could hear them, every whisper that Rhodey and Tony uttered.

“So that’s him,” Rhodey whispered.

“Yeah, he was just here, in New York,” Tony whispered back.

“He looks the same, of course he’s grown but he looks just like little Peter.”

“Because he is little Peter,” Tony said, turning back and looking at Peter.

“Morgan, we want you to meet someone,” Pepper said. She put the little girl down. Peter finally got a good look at her. Her curly brown hair was in a bow. She had a purple shirt on with little jeans.

“Hi Morgan,” Peter said. The child stared at him.

“Sweetie, this is Peter. He’s your brother,” Pepper said. Morgan’s eyes were like saucers.When Peter knelt down to her level he noticed the little freckles dotting her nose, just like his.

“You’re my brother!” Morgan ran up and hugged him. The shock of it caught him by surprise. His arms hung limp while the little girl squeezed him tight. “You are real!” Peter could feel her heart speeding up. He felt the wetness of her tears on his shirt.

“Of course I’m real,” Peter said. He locked eyes with his mother.

“I’m so happy your back!” Morgan wiggled out of the hug. “Are you going to stay here now? Forever?” Peter nodded. She smiled and jumped up and down. Rhodey put her little backpack down.

“Hi Peter. You probably don’t remember me, I probably look different from when you last saw me,” Rhodey said.

“Yeah, me too,” Peter laughed.

“I’m your uncle Rhodey, if that wasn’t already clear. I went to college with your dad.” Your Dad. The words rang through Peter’s mind. Your Dad. He hasn’t heard something like that in well… forever.

“It’s nice to meet you, well, meet you again,” Peter said to Rhodey. He followed Pepper and Tony into what he guessed was Morgan’s room given the giant M on the door. He followed and saw her little room. A tiny bed with dark pink sheets, little iron men around the room, a stuffed alpaca on the bed, and the tiny little girl on the bed.

“Do you two want to be alone?” Pepper asked. Peter didn’t really know what do say. So he said yes.

And there he was in a bedroom larger than some of the homes he had been in, with a girl who he is connected to in the most intimate way possible for him.

“So, tell me something about yourself,” Peter said. Such a terrible question, she’s like four.

“My favorite color is red,” she said. That was pretty obvious from the color of the sheets that borderlines a shade of red and the decor around the room.

“Because of your dad?” Peter asked.

“No silly! It’s because of Dad’s suit, Dad isn’t red. Iron Man is red!” Peter laughed.

“Where were you hiding?”

“What?”

“Mommy and Daddy said that I always had a big brother, but I have never seen you before. Where were you hiding?”

“Well.. I guess some bad people took me, and they told me that I didn’t have a mommy or a daddy. So I was in a bunch of people’s houses before your mommy and daddy found me.”

“I am happy that you are back!” She jumped off the bed and went to her toys. A barbie mansion filled with barbies and action figures. “Do you want to play?” She said in the cutest voice Peter’s ever heard. He jumped off the bed as well and squatted down at the dollhouse. Morgan picked up a barbie with brown hair dressed as a scientist. Next, she picked up a Captain America figurine.

“Do you want to be uncle Steve?” she asked.

“Captain America is your uncle?” Peter was confused. Was this another fake uncle like Rhodey or was there something he didn’t know about? Because that’s a pretty big secret to be revealed by a four year old.

“Mama says he’s not really my uncle, that he’s just a friend. But he’s my second favorite uncle. Rhodey is my favorite.” Peter held the action figure, starting to play with Morgan. Cap threw a lovely party, inviting all the barbies.

Peter faded away into an ocean of thought, he couldn’t tell if he fell over. But he’s pretty sure that he’s not sitting by the dollhouse anymore.

_“Hey Pete, can you come with me?” Mom? That’s not Mommy’s voice. I open my eyes, it’s not Mommy. She has curly hair, even though it’s dark. My night light. Where’s my night light._

_“Where’s Mommy?” I said because Mommy always wakes me up in the morning._

_“It doesn’t matter sweetie, but you need to come with me.” She tried to pick me up but I rolled away. She jumped over my bed and grabbed me._

_“No! NO! Let go of me!” I screamed and thrashed, trying to get her to let go. I started screaming. She slapped her hand over my mouth._

_“They can’t hear you. No one can hear you.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the reads. I am so glad that everyone is enjoying this! If you are also reading my other WIP, it might be coming a little slower because that one takes more time to write and now I guess I’m writing two!


	4. what the hell does family mean anyway?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter and Morgan's relationship grows, while Tony finds something that Peter isn't too happy about him finding.

“Hey Petey, you need to wake up,” it was a kid’s voice waking him up. Oh yeah. Peter remembered. He was playing dollhouse with Morgan when he passed out? He didn’t quite know the logistics of what happened. “Petey!” He could feel a tiny hand on his shoulder. He tried to open his eyes, but they didn’t open. 

“Mommy! Daddy! Petey isn’t waking up!” He didn’t hear anything after that, he faded back away. Tony and Pepper ran in. The knelt down by Peter’s side. Tony yelled for Rhodey to get a  
Stark-Tec Med Reader. He came back in seconds. Pepper called for the doctors who worked inside the tower. 

“Urgh…” Peter groaned, his body trying to find words. Tony pricked his finger and got the blood onto the reader. It started blinking saying that his blood sugar was dangerously low. Minutes later the doctors ran up. It all ran by like a blur. They gave him injections, took him down to the med-bay. He started seizing, they gave him more injections. They waited. 

After what they guessed was an hour, Peter woke up. 

“Peter, are you diabetic? Why didn’t you tell us?” 

“Not….” Peter’s talking still hadn’t fully recovered. 

“We need to really read your blood test, they didn’t do that at the hospital,” Pepper said. 

“No!” His eyes were still half-lidded. 

“You don’t want us to analyze your blood test?” 

“No….” Peter fell back asleep, mostly just because of exhaustion and all the glucose that his body got. 

“Just, rest,” Tony said. He knew that Peter didn’t want him to read the blood test, even if he couldn’t figure out why. But he needed to. This kid doesn’t have a medical history. Anything could be wrong with him. 

“I’m going to take another sample,” Tony said. He took a small needle and took the blood sample from Peter. Thankfully, he was out like a light and didn’t feel anything. 

Tony brought it into his lab. He used microscopes, with some help from Jarvis, to get all the information he could about this blood. He could tell that something was up with this. He was comparing a normal person’s karyotype and then Peter’s. His chromosomes seemed to have this blue glow to them. 

“Jarvis, check for radiation poisoning.” 

“There does not seem to be any signs of classic radiation poisoning, but there are high levels of Vita radiation in his blood.” 

“Why the hell would there be Vita in his blood?” Tony was another level of confusion. There was really only one other person who was affected by Vita radiation, Steve. It would explain the high metabolism and maybe even the hypoglycemic shock. 

“Is there anything else I’m not seeing?” Tony asked. Jarvis replied with no. Tony kept looking at the blood and the DNA. He doesn’t have diabetes, but the constant malnourishment could explain the low blood sugar. From what Tony and Jarvis could see, his body eats up everything he puts in it fifty times as fast, compared to a normal thirteen year old. 

“Sir, It may be helpful to know that Peter is awake and his speech has returned.” Tony thanked the AI before going back down to the med-bay. He saw Peter sitting up in his bed, happily eating a fruit cup. 

“Looks like you’re doing well,” Tony said. He has a healing factor, remember how fast his ear healed? Tony pushed his thoughts away, he was focused on his boy. He wheeled a stool over to him, then going to sit down. 

“Peter, was there any time in your life that you came in contact with radiation, specifically Vita radiation?” Peter stilled. How does he know, Peter thought. He can’t know. 

“No, and I asked you not to do my blood test.” Peter started to get up, thinking that fleeing the scene would be the best. Tony stopped him. 

“What are you hiding!” He said in a calm tone. “I did your blood test, and there is Vita radiation in your blood, surrounding your DNA. I think you know who the only other person like that is,” Peter looked down at his feet. 

“Look at me, there’s nothing wrong. Did someone hurt you?” Tony asked, “When they took you did they….” His voice drifted off. 

“No, they didn’t do anything to me. I… don’t remember what they did to me. But I remember when this happened. I don’t want to tell you. Just let me go!” Peter jumped out of the bed, going up to his room barefoot. He opened his dresser drawer and pulled out his homemade spidey suit. He clipped on the web-shooters he made out of old radio parts onto his wrists. He fiddled with the windows, trying to find a way out. He finally found a latch. He pulled the window up, climbed out the window, closed the window, and swung out onto the neighboring buildings. 

His cheeks were wet inside the hot mask. This was the only thing that he could keep to himself. The one thing that was just his! But now they are all going to find out. They’re going to kick you out. You aren’t as good as Morgan. She’s talented and they love her. They actually get to raise her, Peter. They don’t even care. You ran away and they didn’t even come after you, they don’t care if you get taken again. Peter didn’t even try to stop his own thoughts. 

He spotted someone who appeared to be stealing a woman’s purse. He swung down and webbed the thief in the face. He returned the woman’s purse to a waterfall of Thank You’s. He swung away, finding another person in distress and then another and another. It was almost dusk when he finally made his way back to the tower. He climbed back in the window, after looking to see if anyone was in it. 

He took off the suit and put it back in its hiding spot. 

“It seems that a plate was left for you, Mr. Stark.” Peter looked on top of the dresser to see a plate filled with hot food. He smiled and started eating it on his bed. Reminded him of number ten, one time he was eating a granola bar on his bed. They really got mad at him for that one. 

The food was pretty good, he wondered who made it. Did the Starks have personal chefs? Peter thought the answer was no, seeing that Tony made breakfast this morning. He realized that he had scarfed down all the food and he was still hungry. 

After fighting his own instincts and left the room. He looked into the living room to see the infamous trio, cuddled closely, watching a movie. It was some disney movie Peter had never seen, but he hasn’t seen many movies. 

“Thanks for the food,” Peter said quietly. They turned around. 

“Hey, Pete, you’re back. You should join us, we’re watching Tangled.” Peter sat down on the other side of the couch. He could barely pay attention to the film, despite how good it is. 

“Peter what’s wrong?” Pepper asked. Peter just shook his head. 

“Do you want to talk?” Tony asked. Peter stayed still, not moving his eyes. “Come on, let’s go talk. Morgan can watch this on her own.” Tony gave Morgan a little kiss on the cheek before standing up. Pepper did the same .Peter reluctantly stood up and went to his room. He sat down on the bed, facing the wall. 

“Peter, please tell us what’s wrong,” Pepper said. Peter stayed silent. She wrapped her arms around him. “It’s all right now, you can talk to us.” Peter’s head fell.

“I don’t belong here,” Peter whispered. “You were supposed to be number sixteen, not some rich people to swoop me away to whatever this is.” Peter scrunched his face in order to not break down. 

“What do you mean number sixteen? You said that at the hospital, what does it mean?” Tony asked him. Peter took a shaky breath. 

“I’ve been in fifteen foster homes,” Peter whispered. To his demise, they heard him. 

“Fifteen? Peter…” Pepper’s voice faded as she spoke. Peter assumed that she was crying. 

“How many years were you in care for?” Tony asked. 

“Eleven years, or that’s what they told me.” 

“Who?” Tony asked. 

“The first one I remember, CPS dropped me off. I heard them saying something about this being my third. I started counting from there.” 

“Oh Peter, I’m so sorry,” Tony said. He hugged Peter. “I’m so sorry that I wasn’t there, that I didn’t do anything.” 

“You did as much as you could,” Pepper said through tears. She touched Peter’s hair. 

“I missed out on so much. You have your daughter and she gets to spend her whole life knowing her real parents. She’s not going to live a lie, like I did. I will never get that back. All those fucking years of feeling like no one will ever want me. And then you guys hug me and kiss me and make me all the eggs I want, I don’t know what to do,” Peter’s voice became broken and croaky as he cried. His parents, his real parents hugged him so close. 

“We love you so much, Petey. Someone terrible wanted us to hurt. They took that from us, and we are going to love you with all the love we saved up while we missed you,” Tony said with the strength of his voice returning. Peter turned and buried his face in the crook of Tony’s neck, then his chest. When he put his cheek on the cold metal of the arc reactor that Tony has kept all these years, Peter felt a sense of home. Maybe it was the warm blue light that projected onto his face. Maybe it was him finally getting everything off his chest. But nonetheless, everything felt lighter. 

And when Peter woke up that next morning, things felt even lighter. He awoke to sunshine in his windows and music playing in the kitchen. He ruffled his hair, yawned, rubbed his eyes, and walked out of his room. There was his family, which was hard getting used to. He’s never called anything a family, except for those people who died in a plane crash. Those people that never knew him. 

“Morning,” he said in a voice that made it obvious that he just woke up. He was surprised with a kiss on the top of his head from a certain redhead. 

“Good morning Petey-pie,” she said. Peter turned around and smiled. 

“You’re not in a meeting!” Peter sounded a bit too excited. 

“Yep! I’m here to have breakfast with my favorite people. Dad made you six eggs. And the doctors here suggested that you get some glucose tablets. Keep them with you, so when your blood sugar gets low you don’t pass out and start having seizures.” She gave a sarcastic laugh that was only somewhat sincere. But she was pretty bad at managing stress, in a different way from her husband. Keeping appearances and all that. 

They were all sat together in the kitchen’s breakfast nook, eating their eggs and sausage. Peter chewed on one of the chalky grape tablets. He felt a little shiver of energy that almost made him feel normal. Before he went on a field trip and got bit by a spider and became some sort of half-ass superhero. 

“Thank you,” Peter said albeit quietly. He finished his breakfast, then took to encouraging Morgan to eat hers. 

“Come on Mo, you can do it!” She grabbed her little fork and stabbed some eggs, putting them into her tiny mouth. Peter continued cheering her on until she cleared the entire plate. “Good job Morgan! That was so good!” Morgan jumped out of her seat and went to the sink where Pepper got her cleaned up. 

“Why don’t you go play with Petey in your room,” she said. Morgan smiled and jumped away to her room with Peter’s big hand in her small one. She sat down on the floor. 

“We are going to become superheroes!” She ran into her closet and grabbed some capes and masks. She pulled one of the black masks over her face and gave the other to Peter. He stood up and helped Morgan with her cape. She went back into the closet and got a large cardboard disc. It was painted in many colors. 

“Is that supposed to be like Captain America?” 

“Other superheroes can have shields, silly, and mine is purple. Uncle Steve’s is blue!” Peter smiled. He adjusted his own cape. 

“So what do we do as superheroes?” Peter asked. Morgan replied immediately. 

“We save people!” She held her ‘shield’ in front of her and ran out of the room. They ran through the kitchen. Morgan was making jerking motions with her shield, Peter guessed that she was fighting bad guys with it. 

“Stay on these three floors!” Tony shouted to the kids before they disappeared down the stairs. 

“Wait, what’s my superpower?” Peter asked. He realized that he was just running around in a cape not doing anything. 

“Just shoot lasers out of your hands or something, look at all these bad guys!” Peter shrugged and kept running, although for him it was more like a brisk jog. 

“Pew, Pew, Pew,” Peter almost burst into laughter while he ran around with Morgan as he pretended to shoot lasers out of his hands. Peter kicked open the stairwell door and continued to make funny noises as Morgan pretended to hit things with her shield. 

“Oh no! A giant green monster!” Peter shouted. Morgan dropped to the ground and threw her shield. Peter dropped down with her and when he looked up, he wasn’t exactly pleased with the sight. A tall, muscular, blond was standing with his head tilted and his arms crossed. His eyebrows were low on his face, highlighting a cut down the side of his cheek. It looked new. 

“Hi, uncle Steve!” 

Oh shit, this isn’t going to be good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this is a bit short but wow this is doing better than i thought. thanks guys


	5. jumping into the windows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter meets someone special while Tony finds out a secret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all your reads and comments. Keep em coming I love reading them!

“Hi, Uncle Steve! You’re back!” Morgan clung onto his legs. Steve picked her up and held her on his hip. He put the shield down

“I am back, now Momo can you tell me who this is?” Steve pointed to Peter. He stood up, blushing with embarrassment.

“Does Daddy know you’re back?” Morgan asked. Steve shook his head.

“I was about to surprise him,” Steve said. Morgan smiled, she was touching his face. Clean-shaven. “So who is your mystery friend?” Steve stepped closer to Peter.

“My… My name is Peter,” he said. His voice began trembling

“And how did this mysterious Peter get into the most restrictive area of Stark tower? Did you break-in? Are you trying to take Stark’s kid? Tell me what you’re doing!” Peter was shaking. The door slammed open. Tony rushed in.

“Oh my god, Peter I didn’t know that he was back up here. You don’t have to tell him anything.” Tony lightly grabbed Peter’s arm. Peter turned away from Steve. He followed Tony back upstairs. Peter sat down on the couch, a deep breath leaving his lips. Pepper and Tony’s conversation was clear as day, even if they were whispering across the room.

“I didn’t know that Steve was back.” His voice was tainted with panic. Peter was still processing. Did I just meet Captain America? Does he live in my house? He got up and walked over to Pepper and Tony.

“Did he ever meet me? Like… before.” Peter truly didn’t know if Steve had ever met the three-year-old Peter. Tony shook his head.

“You were taken in ‘05, Steve didn’t come out of the ice until 2011. He heard about you though, but everyone heard about you.” Tony was rubbing his forehead. “That was a close one. I wasn’t ready to tell anyone. Happy and Rhodey are the only ones who know.”

“Do you want him to know? And I get that it’s a little weird to have a conversation with Captain America,” Pepper said.

“He’ll probably be wondering who this kid is and why you grabbed him and ran,” Peter said. Pepper and Tony silently agreed with him. “I think he should know. He is your friend.” Tony nodded.

“Are you sure?” Peter nodded. “Jarvis, tell Rogers that he needs to come back, and bring my kid with him.”

“Yes sir,” Jarvis replied. They were notified that Steve had entered Tony’s floor. Peter sat back down on the couch.

“Hey Tony, I’m sorry about what I did back there. I don’t know who this kid is, and I just don’t want Morgan to end up like Peter,” Steve was rambling.

“It’s okay, let’s start over. My name is Peter, and I guess I live here now.” Steve’s eyes widened.

“Peter? You’re not… are you?” Peter nodded.

“I guess I am.”

“How… what?” Steve was visibly confused.

“I was in foster care as a kid. They told me that my name is Peter Parker and that my parents were dead. I passed out on the street two weeks ago and they matched my blood with the crime scene stuff. Now I’m here.”

“That’s weird,” Steve said. “Why would someone do that?”

“Why would someone take Bucky? We don’t know these things,” Pepper said. Steve sat next to Peter. Tony was holding Morgan now.

“I’ve heard good things about you, kid.” Steve patted him on the shoulder. I want to thank him, but what should I call him. Mr. Rogers? Captain Rogers? Mr. America…? Peter decided on nothing and hence called him nothing.

“Are there… other people who live here. That I haven’t met?” Peter asked.

“Well, not everyone lives here anymore. Bruce has his own place near here. He knew you. Who else… Ah, Natasha never met you. I met her five years after….” his voice drifted off. Pepper took over.

“Steve’s friends, Sam and Bucky live here. Of course, they never met you. They live here because they need protection that people can’t get everywhere else. Wanda, she’s about your age, used to live in Sokovia but this year it was invaded.”

“Invaded?” Peter asked. He never heard about Sokovia before or any invasion.

“By something called Ultron. It was something that Doctor Banner and your Dad tried to create but it gained sentience and went off the rails, per se. Practically the whole country, though it was small, was destroyed in the efforts to stop Ultron amongst other things. Now Wanda stays with us. And just a heads up, she has these insane powers.”

“Cool, anyone else I should know about?”

“If you see this red guy who sounds like Jarvis, that’s Vision. He was made with part of Jarvis’ interface. Don’t worry about him, he likes to wander.”

“Okay, so Natasha, Steve, Sam, Bucky, Wanda, Red Guy, Rhodey. Got it.” Pepper smiled.

“Any questions?” Peter said to Steve.

“I’m sorry but how did you not know? Did you never suspect anything?” Pepper, Tony, and Peter cringed at the question. Peter’s thought about it before. When he found out, one of the most pressing questions was how could you not have known?

“I don’t know…. I was told one thing for ten years, of course, I believed them. I had a picture of them, and I treasured it. Turns out my real family photos were the front pages of the newspapers.” Tony sighed, remembering the photo that upset Peter. “I had one of the same thoughts that Mom and Dad had, Peter went missing in California and I’m in New York, couldn’t be me.

“Well, I’m going into my room. I need some serious chill-out time.” Peter got up from the couch and went into his room. Steve left about the same time but stayed to put Morgan down for a nap.

“Tony, he called us Mom and Dad,” Pepper whispered.

“I guess I heard it too.” He put his arms around Pepper and kissed her softly and tenderly on her lips. “Here sit down, I need to show you something.” Pepper sat down on the couch, shoulder to shoulder with her husband. “I think I found someone who can join the Avengers.”

“What?” Pepper heard him clearly, but Tony hasn’t brought something like this up ever. Shield has been the one finding potential candidates, or they come by them on accident. As far as Pepper knows, Tony has never personally picked anyone for the Avengers initiative.

“Look at this,” Tony said. He tapped his watch a few times, and a blue projection played out of it. A masked figure stopped a car from crashing into a bus with their bare hands.

“Holy crap, are they enhanced?”

“That’s the thing. I have no idea who they are. Check this one out,” Tony played another clip. This one was of the same figure, dressed in red and blue, climbing up a wall. From Pepper’s perspective, he was not holding on with anything. His hands were bare.

“How do you plan to find this guy… girl?”

“Haven’t quite gotten to that yet. Just trying to figure out what the hell is up with it like his hands don’t have gloves on them. Just hands, sticking to the wall. It’s not in his shoes, because his feet aren’t always on whatever he’s sticking to. Not to mention the webs that shoot out of his hands.”

“Webs?”

“Yeah, this one shows it pretty well.” Another clip played, this one showing the figure swinging through Queens. Pepper was shocked and asked another slew of questions about how he was doing it. Most of which, Tony couldn’t answer.

Peter would have heard all of this, well if he hadn't swung out the window and started ‘patrolling’. He was smiling while he stopped a robbery in Times Square, along with a costumed character scamming someone’s money. And the highlight of his time on patrol was when he stopped a car accident. Someone was having a bit too much fun in the daytime and decided to drive. Peter caught the car and called the cops. “Stupid people don’t get anywhere in life, pal,” Peter told him. Peter saw from afar the police taking the driver away.

He swung back to Stark Tower, going the back way so people didn’t see the spider-man going to Tony Stark’s house. He went up to his window and opened it using his webs. He climbed onto the ceiling and webbed the door, closing it slowly. He did the same for the window. He dropped down and pulled off the mask, throwing it on the floor. His hair was sweaty and matted to his forehead. He turned on the light and there stood Tony Stark.

“What the fuck,” he said quickly and loudly. Peter just about screamed. Tony did in fact scream, causing Pepper to run in. Of course, she assumed the worst, so when she saw Peter in the same red and blue suit that she saw on video about an hour earlier she was shocked, to say the least.

“Peter?”

“Yeah, it’s me. Why are you in my room!” Peter started taking off the suit, throwing it down on the floor. He was not dressed in shorts and a t-shirt only.

“You-you… you’re the spider-man? How long has this been going on!”

“Um…. maybe six months?” Tony’s hand rested on his face. Pepper was pacing around the room. “I’m really sorry, I just wanted to use this thing to help people.”

“What do you mean ‘this thing’,” Pepper asked. Peter sighed. He shouldn’t have brought it up.

“I went on this school field trip to Oscorp,” when Peter said this both Pepper and Tony visibly cringed. “And they had this lab filled with spiders, and one bit me. That night I felt weird and when I woke up I didn’t need glasses and I was hungry all the time. Not to mention that I could stick to stuff.”

“That’s why you didn’t want me to do your blood test,” Tony said. Peter nodded. Pepper pulled Peter in for a hug.

“It’s okay, Peter. We aren’t going to kick you out. We still love you, even if this is a little weird.” She kissed his cheek and rubbed his sweaty hair.

“Do you want to talk?” Tony asks. “Because I want to talk, and to be fair you have a pretty good Dad to talk about this stuff with.” Peter chuckled. “So you have so-called super strength,” he said.

“I guess, I mean I did stop a car with my bare hands today.” Pepper’s eyes widened.

“Peter that’s dangerous! Why would you do that?”

“The driver was drunk, and I wasn’t going to let him kill those innocent people because he was being stupid.” Pepper was frowning now.

“That’s really honorable, Petey. We are your parents and we are a special circumstance. And we don’t want you getting hurt again.”

“I know,” Peter whispered. “I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Tony said before pulling Peter into a hug. Peter’s head fell into Tony’s neck. “We’re going to work this out.” Pepper joined in, making it into an awkward family hug.

\--

“I’m going to make him a suit,” Tony said. “He needs a major upgrade. He needs way more than that hoodie. He needs a tracker, bulletproof fabric, and different webs! I need to protect him as much as I can. I don’t want to stop him from doing this, we know that won’t be good. But we can at least protect him.” Pepper nodded.

“I think that’s a good idea. I’m definitely not comfortable with the fact that our kid is a vigilante superhero, but as you said, there’s no stopping him.” She was typing on her laptop, using the threat analysis software that they grandfathered in from Shield. They did find some traces of him, mostly from the larger events that happened around him. He had a work in progress file that Tony was using just a couple hours ago. His treat level was somewhat high. The reasoning was his strength. Tony lowered his threat level but didn’t change his identity status to anything but UNKNOWN.

“Well first we find out that our kid has been in foster care for ten years and now he has massive superpowers,” Pepper said. She sighed and switched tabs. It was a pdf file of all of Peter’s records. She scrolled and found a document that looked a lot less official than his ‘birth certificate’ or other certificates of various transfers. It read,

**1/16/06**   
**Imani Grant, Social Worker**

**A child presenting as around three years old was brought in today by a neighbor. She turned in the child’s birth certificate, confirming his age of three years. Her interview transcript is provided here:**

**IG: What is your name**

**DM: My name is Danielle Mitchell**

**IG: You brought a child in. When did this child come into your care?**

**DM: His parents went on a trip in September but the plane crashed, I decided to take him in until I figured out what to do. But I realized that I can’t care for him.**

**IG: What is the child’s name?**

**DM: Peter Parker**

**IG: What is his DOB**

**DM: July 7th, 2001**

**IG: What was the date that his parents died**

**DM: The plane crashed on September 8th I believe.**

**IG: What are his parent’s names**

**DM: Mary Parker and Richard Parker. His aunt May and uncle Ben Parker were also killed.**

**IG: Do you wish to become Peter’s legal guardian?**

**DM: I think it best for him to go into foster care.**

**\--**

**IG: Hello Peter**

**PP: Hi**

**IG: You sound sad, why are you sad?**

**PP: My mommy and daddy are dead**

**IG: It’s okay now. We’re going to put you in a house with some really nice people who will take care of you**

**PP: I want my Mommy and Daddy back**

\--

“Tony, I think Peter was lied to,” Pepper said.

“Of course he was lied to. They told him his parents were dead,” Tony said from across the table.

“No. I found a document at the bottom of this file. It says that he was brought into CPS in January 2006, but he was taken in September of ‘05. Mary and Richard died in September of ‘05. Something happened during that time.” Tony looked up with concern.

“What? What do you mean something happened?”

“Maybe he was kept somewhere, tortured even.” She shuddered at her own words. “But I’m going to keep reading on it, there are still almost three pages on this.” She opened the document back up and read the page that came after the transcripts.

**1/16/06**   
**Imani Grant, Social Worker**

**During my interview with Peter, he seemed very shaken up. This seems reasonable for a child who has lost their parents. The only strange occurrence in this is the bruises and burn scars across his body. I later asked Mrs. Mitchell why he has so many injuries. She told me about an incident that Peter’s mother told her about. I quote “Peter is such an accident-prone child, once when he was still with his parents she tried to jump up onto a hot stove. And even when he was with he would be falling down the stairs all the time.” I asked why she did not try to toddler-proof the house and she replied, “These old bones are meant for motherhood. That’s why I’m here.”**

**1/18/06**   
**Peter was dropped off at the attached address by Mrs. Mitchell. The foster parents have been informed of his situation.**

**1/31/06**   
**Following Imani Grant’s transfer out of Queens, Jonathan Brooks has been selected as Peter’s caseworker.**

The last page was just a list of the homes that Peter’s been in. But the thing is, there were only thirteen. Pepper distinctly remembered Peter telling them that he had been in fifteen.

“This is weird, Tony.” She brought him over and he looked at the document himself. “How do we tell him this?”

“I don’t know. I think he went to bed. I wanted to tell him goodnight, but he fell asleep.”

_“It’s not naptime Peter,” the voice said. Peter’s face stung. He opened his eyes, seeing that the mysterious woman had just slapped him._

_“Where’s Mommy and Daddy?” Peter asked. He looked around. He was sitting in a little chair, and his hands were tied to it._

_“I told you yesterday, Mommy and Daddy aren’t here.”_

_“When are they coming back?” Peter started to cry again._

_“They’re never coming back, they’re dead.”_


	6. dreaming my dreams

“So Peter, how do you feel you are adjusting. This has been a big change for you.” Peter shrugged but thought intensely for a minute. 

“I think I’m adjusting well. I haven’t had any panic attacks or anything,” Peter said. Doctor Sarah wrote some things down. 

“Have you experienced any challenges assimilating to your new living situation?” In all honesty, Peter was used to the questions. Every time he would be transferred there would be a random social worker, most of the time it wasn’t even his caseworker, would ask him a few questions. 

“Yeah, a few. But this is a bit of a different situation I guess, not my usual transfer.” Sarah chuckled and wrote some more things down. 

“Is there anything else, perhaps anything distressing?” Peter’s face dropped. Sarah leaned in closer, her face filled with excitement.   
“I’ve been having nightmares,” Peter said quietly. 

“Nightmares? Do you want to tell me about them?” Peter took a deep breath. He stretched his feet out to the end of the couch. 

“I’m… in this really dark room. And I’m tied to a chair. I’m not as tall and there’s this lady. She’s always there, and she yells at me. Last night there was one, she told me that my mommy and daddy are dead.” Sarah’s eyes widened as she scribbled down more information. 

“Thank you for telling me. I think that is all for today, but I want to talk to your parents. And if you need to talk to me, I’m always here.” Peter stood up from the couch and gave the therapist a sad little wave. He opened the door and told Tony and Pepper that Sarah wanted to speak to them. Peter sat on the couch outside her office. He could hear everything. 

“Peter has expressed concern about these nightmares, but I think he is remembering his kidnapping.” Even through the soundproof walls, Peter could hear Pepper gasp. 

“What did he say?” Papers shuffled and Doctor Sarah cleared her throat. 

“He described being tied to a chair with a woman yelling at him that his parents are dead. I believe that this is a real event that is surfacing in his memory.” 

“Me too,” Peter heard Tony say. “We found out the other day that Peter was not immediately put into foster care.” At this moment, Peter considered leaving and not listening to the rest of the conversation. But he stayed. “There is a period from when he went missing to January when he was turned in to social services.” Peter stilled. What did he say? Peter stood up and left the tiny waiting room. He paced around the hallway. He started thinking, what if those dreams are real? 

“They can’t be real, and there must be something wrong in the paperwork. I was taken and I was dropped into CPS. That’s it,” Peter whispered to himself. He hit the elevator button and went up to the penthouse. He paced around that floor as well. He heard the elevator ding and saw his parents come out. 

“I heard what you told her.” They stilled. “Why didn’t you tell me!” His voice was filled with rage. “I may have been stuck in a basement for months, and you don’t think that’s something important to tell your son!” 

“Sweetie, sit down,” Pepper said. Peter slammed down onto the couch. “We only found this out yesterday, and we don’t even know what to think of it. We thought that you were dropped off only days after the incident. But as it turns out, you were placed into your first foster home around the 18th of January, 2006.”

“That’s not right, because I went into my second home in January ‘06. There was one before it. I remember my first foster mom dropping me off. I was happy, for some reason.” He shrugged. 

“Peter, you do understand that you could be remembering things from your childhood, right?” He stared forward, not replying. After many moments, he nodded. 

“I’ve never remembered anything like this before. My first memory is playing outside at my foster mom’s house. I thought that was my first, but I guess it wasn’t.” Pepper sat down next to him. 

“We’ll figure this out, okay? It’ll work out in the end,” she wrapped her arms around him. “We’ll keep looking for things, we’re going to find out what happened to you.” Peter turned and put his head into Pepper’s neck. 

“I just want to go back,” Peter said. Though he didn’t know if he said it out loud or not. 

\--

Peter was sitting in his room when he opened his laptop for the first time in a week and a half. The first thing he clicked was his email. Now Peter didn’t have friends, but there were people in her life that came and went. One of them was Ned. Ned was a foster kid who went to one of his schools. It was actually the last school he was at. And the one that he was going to before this whole mess started. 

2 new messages from nedsaid@geemail 

To: PeterParker@geemail  
From: nedsaid@geemail.  
Subject: uve been gone...  
Hey man, you haven’t been at school for a while. I’m starting to think that you died. I hope you haven’t died. In all honesty, you probably got transferred to new parents. Good for you, Mrs. Dunlap sounds like a real b to the itch.   
Ned

To: PeterParer@geemail  
From: nedsaid@geemail  
Subject: Where r u?  
You’re still not back. I’m starting to get worried, and you haven’t even replied to my messages. Not even a smiley face or a simple ‘hey I got transferred I’m in the rich part of town now, and I’m getting adopted!’   
Message me back  
Ned

Peter thought it best that he finally replied. So he started to draft a new message.   
To: nedsaid@geemail  
From: PeterParker@geemail 

Peter almost cringed when he typed in his email address. It felt like he was stealing someone else’s identity because now he isn’t even Peter Parker.   
Subject: Hi Again  
Hi Ned. Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve been to school or even read your emails. I can’t tell you much, but it turns out my parents weren’t dead. I’m living with them now, outside of Queens. I don’t think I’ll be going back to your school. But I want to hang out so badly. Maybe Central Park sometime.   
Peter

The moment he hit sent, a wave of relief washed over him so to speak. He knew that Ned was usually on his computer doing a variety of things, so he was almost definitely reading that email right now. What if I gave away too much? What if he figures it out and sells the information. 

Peter inhaled, held it and then exhaled. He inhaled and then exhaled. It was what Doctor Sarah taught him to do in ‘anxious situations.’ 

From: nedsaid@geemail  
To: PeterParker@geemail  
Subject: ur back!  
You’re finally back! Well not back really, because you aren’t coming back to school. But you’ve been adopted, technically. But it’s wonderful to know that you found your real parents, or they found you. I would love to meet you in Central frickin Park (I guess my prayers for your secret rich family finally came tru!) How about Saturday at noon?   
Ned

He was finally going to see someone, from his old life. Ned was what he thought of when he thought Peter Parker. And he’s finally going to see him. It didn’t cross his mind that he needed to ask his parents first. So he got himself up and out of his bedroom door. Pepper was sitting at the kitchen counter, typing something on her laptop. 

“Hey, uh, Pepper?” She swung her chair away from her laptop. 

“Yes, sweetie?” She was looking at him, really looking at him. 

“Um, this guy from the last school I was at. His name is Ned. He wants to meet up with me in Central Park. So do I. Before you worry, I didn’t tell him that you were my parents, I just said that my real parents weren’t dead and now I’m living with them. Please?” Pepper smiled at him. 

“Of course, no one knows that you are our kid so as long as Happy takes you it should be fine.” Peter smiled back. 

“Thank you!” Peter shouted before running back into his room. He opened his laptop and sent Ned an email that they were on for Saturday. Ned’s reply was ecstatic. And Saturday was only a couple days away. 

\--

Peter spent the next couple of days playing with Morgan, flipping through the myriad of tv shows and streaming services to choose from, and doing absolutely nothing. He lay on his bed with his arms completely outstretched and considered going out. But he was tired so he decided against it. He hasn’t done anything all day, so it surprises him that he is at this level of exhaustion. Morgan has been with her tutors all day, A charter school in a tower, Peter laughed. Pepper and Tony have been working, so thus he is bored. 

He moved himself to the living room, where he positioned himself in the same way, but on the couch. 

“I want to go to school,” Peter said. Pepper was sitting in a desk fairly close to Peter. “I’m so bored, not to diss on you. And like, nobody knows that I’m your kid. I could ride the bus and eat crappy school lunches like a regular kid.” Her face dropped. 

“We’ve talked about this, Petey, it’s not safe. Morgan doesn’t go to school for the same reasons.” 

“But everyone knows about Morgan. They saw you on TV just a couple hours after she was born! For all everyone else knows, Peter Stark is dead and Peter Parker just got transferred to another school, it could work.” Her eyes scrunched together. 

“I’ll have to talk to Tony. We want you to be happy, but more than that we want you to be safe.” She left the desk and sat next to Peter. She put her hand over Peter’s. “We don’t want you to get hurt again.” Peter nodded. 

“But I’ll look into some schools.” That put a smile on Peter’s face. Pepper went back to her desk. Peter decided upon wandering to cure his boredom. 

He began on the floor below the penthouse. The last time he was here, he was running away from Captain America. But now Steve knows about him, and he finds it safe. He walks around, eventually ending up in a kitchen. It was similar to Pepper and Tony’s. But it was obvious that it was Steve’s kitchen. There were pictures all around from the 1940s. He looked around and observed some of the pictures. There were a few of the Avengers at restaurants and a few of Steve and another guy that he didn’t recognize. The other man had a little bit of a beard and long hair pulled back into a bun. Looks like a pretty cool guy, he thought. 

He kept looking around, not realizing that he was probably being somewhat creepy prodding around Captain America’s apartment. He was in the living room, observing Steve’s collection of films on dvd. He had quite the variety, some of which he had seen before. He had all of Star Wars and the boxed sets of the Star Trek series (original, next gen, and voyager). Not to mention all of the old movies from the thirties that did not intrest Peter in the slightest. 

“You’re back,” he heard. It was a whisper from rooms away. It sounded like Steve. Curiosity got the best of Peter as he tip-toed throughout the rest of the apartment. He went through a hallway where he found Steve’s bedroom. 

It should be noted that at this point, Peter had two decisions. He could have turned around and walked away or he could have looked into the slightly cracked door. Peter, being a very curious child chose the latter. 

He peeked in through the not even half opened door to see Steve hugging some other man. It was the guy from the picture, the one with the long hair and the beard. Steve was touching his face and running his hands throughout his hair. 

“I told you I would come back. This mission was completely safe. There was no way-”

“There’s always a way, Buck.” The other man-Buck Peter assumed- was the one touching Steve now. And at this point Peter was regretting his decision. It was when the other man’s lips touched Steve’s that Peter ran away, going back to his parent’s floor. 

He wasn’t out of breath, but he felt like he should be. 

“Pepper, does anyone live with Steve?” Peter asked. She looked up from her computer and laughed.

“Oh no, you probably just ran into his gaggle of friends. They are there a lot,” she looked back down at her computer. Didn’t look like a gaggle of friends, it looked like two dudes kissing. “Well would you look at that, Barnes is back. That’s probably what you saw. Steve’s little quartet was having a reunion.” 

“Barnes?” Peter asked. 

“James, he’s mostly called Bucky. Don’t be scared of him. We’ve been through that run, and there’s nothing to be scared of.” Peter nodded. He walked away and despite everything his mind told him to do, he went back downstairs to investigate. 

As he walked down the stairs he was saying a silent prayer, please don’t be kissing, please don’t be kissing. 

He was back in Steve’s kitchen when he sighed in relief. Steve, and who he now knew as Bucky, were sitting at the kitchen counter having a drink. 

“Hi Peter,” Steve said. He stood up from the stool, going to stand next to Peter. “Bucky this is Peter, Stark’s son. It’s a long story.” Peter gave a little smile. He couldn’t get the image of Steve putting his hands all over Bucky out of his mind, and of Bucky putting his hands on Steve.

“Hi Bucky,” Peter said. Bucky’s face was ghostly white. He was breathing heavily, and Peter didn’t understand what was happening. This man was afraid.


	7. the tour guide and the bag

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> peter goes to his new school for the first time as we start to swim into the soldier's conciousness

Peter was walking through central park with a smile on his face. He was ecstatic. He hadn’t been this happy for a couple of days at least. He was finally meeting up with Ned. When he got out of the car, Happy promised to “keep his distance” or whatever that meant. Peter just asked that he be far enough away that Ned wouldn’t see the guy in the black suit following him around. 

The bench. It was the one they agreed on. It was distinguished by the shal he saw memorable graffitti. All Peter had to say was ‘The Buttcheek Bench’ and they both knew where to go, based off of the artistic choices that a street felon made. 

When he finally reached the spot of their meeting he was overjoyed. When he spotted the tufts of brown hair that signified Ned he ran over and hugged him. 

“Peter Parker, now that is a sight for sore eyes. It has been so long!” 

“It’s really been just a month,” Peter laughed. Ned shook him around while he hugged him, reminding Peter that Ned was really twice the size of him. 

“How’s it been? Your parents are alive!” Peter stood back. “Where have old Mary and Richard been this whole time?” Peter’s hands were sweating. 

“Um, I can’t tell you. Legal stuff you know,” he said. Ned shrugged. “What have you been doing at school? Has the eighth grade gotten any less dumb?” 

“If anything it’s gotten far dumber because you aren’t there.” They sat for quite a while, catching up and making plans to meet up again. 

\--

_The soldier was busy. He had been training with the volunteers for many days, most without him going under cryo. He was mostly exhausted, though he didn’t know that. He would fight one of them, and either they didn’t get up or he was the one on the ground. That didn’t happen though. There was only one that defeated him. The girl._

_His handlers told him that they had a special mission. Of course, they didn’t tell him much except for all the details._

_“Hydra is going to cause great pain. Pain that is for the bettering of the world. She will extract and you will both carry out the mission. He dropped a file on the floor. Inside were a few photographs. One of a home and one of a person. Across the top of the file was one name in all capital letters._

_STARK_

\--

“How was your meeting with Ned?” Tony asked Peter. 

“It was awesome. I’m still bummed that we can’t go to the same school because we live so far apart now. But we had a lot of fun. Peter grabbed an apple off of the counter and started eating it. Pepper and Tony both sat down. 

“So Peter, we’ve been thinking. And we think it’s okay to send you to school. Just a local one that’s pretty close to the tower. It’s not too high end and not too shitty that you’ll be unsafe.” Peter’s eyes lit up at his father’s words. He ran up and wrapped him in a giant hug. Tony’s eyes closed as he relished in the few moments that he was in this embrace. 

“When do I start?” Peter asked when he pulled away from the hug. 

“We were thinking Monday? Of course you won’t be starting class then, or at least not the whole day. They want to do some pre-tests before you start.” Peter nodded. 

“Monday! I need to get everything together!” He jumped up and ran out to his bedroom where he picked up his backpack and searched through everything that was in it. He had two notebooks and a couple pencils. Let’s just say that he wasn’t abundant in school supplies. 

His room was different now. When he got there it was empty, just a bed, some tables and a dresser. Now there are colorful rugs, new sheets, and posters of his favorite movies and bands. His spider-suit hangs in the closet proudly. 

Peter took his backpack out to where his parents were residing and he presented his issue. “Um, I don’t have many school supplies. I only have two notebooks and three pencils. I kind of need more.” He was blushing, embarrassment is a bitch. 

“Of course, I will find your schools supply list online and we will order everything. Do you want a new backpack?” Pepper asked. Peter shrugged. 

“I don’t really need a new backpack,” Peter said. He looked down at the worn Jansport that he has been using since the third grade. When he got it, the bright blue fabric shone with newness. But after years upon years and houses upon houses of half of all the things that Peter owned being carried in it. Tony looked down at it. 

“I think you could use a new one. That guy is pretty beat up.” Tony pointed to the backpack on the floor that resembles more of a washed out gray rather than a blue. 

“I guess you are right,” Peter said. He didn’t go back into his room this time. He stayed out in the common area with _his parents_. 

“What’s the name of the school?” He opened his laptop, ready to take a deep dive into the school’s everything. 

“Brenton-Fischer Prep,” Tony responded. Peter typed the name into his search bar. The first result was a website for the school that called itself Brenton-Fischer Junior Senior Preparatory School. 

“I thought this was supposed to be low-key?” Peter said once he saw the school’s webpage. The banner at the front of the page was a building with so many windows it looked like it belonged in a modern art museum. He started clicking through more of the pictures. There were several students on computers looking deep in their studies. Pictures of the various classrooms and libraries were everywhere. Flashy photos of their tennis trophies. 

“Let’s just say that there is far more high-key around here,” Pepper said. But even if Peter thought the school was probably full of douchebags, it looked amazing. There were so many advanced classes and the science programs were ten fold what any of the other schools he went to had. Most didn’t even have a microscope for one table to share. You had to partner up with other tables. 

“But like, this place looks awesome,” Peter said. He copied the link and pasted it into an email to Ned that read, 

**Holy crap man. This is where I’ll be going to school starting Monday.**

Ned replied a couple minutes later with an abundance of shocked face emojis. Along with a “ **I didn’t know your parents were rich** ” Peter didn’t reply. 

Morgan ran in from the elevator with her backpack flying behind her. “Daddy! I got an A+ on my spelling test!” Tony got up and picked her up. 

“That's wonderful sweetie,” he kissed Morgan's forehead. She was smiling so wide when he put her down and Pepper gave her the same praise. And then, what surprised Peter, was that she ran up to him and tackled him in a hug. 

“I’m super proud of you Morgan,” Peter said. Tony looked over and saw that Peter wasn’t smiling. He was the opposite of smiling. “I’m so proud.” 

\--

_The soldier waited. The rendezvous point: the basement of a hydra safehouse. He didn’t know exactly where this safehouse was but he knew that it was far away from where the target was. And where they would look for the target._

_The girl was supposed to arrive today. She would bring the target with her. Alive, but according to the mission description, not for long._

_The steel above him banged. The entrance of the cellar. She’s here. The soldier reached his metal hand out and opened the door. Her masked face was revealed, only her hair was shooting out of the mask that was almost identical to the one that the soldier wore. She dropped a bag into the basement._

_“Mission Report,” the soldier said._

\--

Monday. It was the day. Finally Peter could be a normal kid again. Well, the closest that he could get to being a normal kid. He was dressed in nice jeans and a polo shirt that Pepper got for him. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and picked up his lunch, along with his glucose tablets ‘just in case.’ 

“We wish that we could come with you for your first day, but you know…” Pepper said, her voice fading off. 

“I know. Thank you guys so much for this.” He went up to Tony and gave him a hug, a real hug. 

“I love you buddy,” Tony whispered. He thought that he was being inaudible, but well Peter hears everything. 

“I love you too, Dad.” Okay, Tony was expecting to cry when his son left for school. He never got that moment with him when he was younger. And of course it was the first time that Tony couldn’t be one hundred percent sure that he was safe. But this was something that needs to be done, he has to go to school eventually. The kid would go crazy if he was kept in this skyscraper for the rest of his life. 

“I didn’t forget about you, Mom.” Peter gave his mother a hug as well. She put her head on his shoulder. 

“Have fun at school, and have fun with Helen. She’s your pretend mom,” Pepper said with a smile. Peter shuffled his new backpack on his shoulders and pressed the button to the elevator. He met Helen Cho in the back lobby that was kept locked. They were leaving out the back way, as privacy was important. He got into the front seat of Helen’s car and took a deep breath. 

“Are you going to come inside with me?” Helen nodded. 

“Your parents want to know what the principal says, so that is my job. And aren’t I enjoying my vacation day? I’m kidding, I’m being paid right now.” She laughed. Before he could even look out the window again they were at the school. 

It was just as the pictures have shown, glass accentuating the entire building. Helen parked her car in the visitors' parking lot. They both exited the car and made their way into the building. They made it through the doors and found themselves inside the school’s office. 

“Hello I’m Helen Cho and this is my son Peter Parker. He has recently enrolled and today is his first day at school. We were told to meet with the counselor.” The secretary nodded and showed them to a room a few doors down. On the front was a plaque that read **Ms. Hopper, counselor J-Q.** The secretary gave the door a few knocks before it was opened by a young blond woman. 

“Hello, you must be Peter and Peter’s mother. I’m Lindsay Hopper, your counselor. Please come in and have a seat.” Helen smiled and sat down at the table inside her office. Ms. Hopper also sat down, but with a laptop and a stack of papers. 

“So Peter, before we can make up your class schedule we need to assess your ability level. Your parents did not state that they would not like you moving up a grade or two, so we will continue with this test.” She gave Peter a calculator, pencil, eraser, and scrap paper along with the test packet itself. She told him to begin. She stepped out along with Helen. 

“Do you know of any special talent in math or science in Peter?” Ms. Hopper asked. Helen smiled. 

“Not exactly, but I knew his birth parents very well and they are both very intelligent.” 

“Peter is adopted?” 

“You couldn’t tell?” Helen laughed, pointing at her face. Ms. Hopper laughed as well. The door opened and Peter stuck his head out of the door. 

“Um, I’m finished,” he said. The counselor looked behind her and saw the test packet in hand. She smiled and nodded, taking the paper out of his hands. She put his answer choices into her computer. The tapping of her pencil almost drove the doctor mad. 

“Well, Peter you scored very highly. You fit well into the advanced freshman class. Congratulations. If this is alright with you, we can make up your schedule now. Since you are a high schooler you can pick some of your electives.” She turned the computer screen to him and was shown a course list. He selected a few of them after much consideration. 

**Computer Sci 1**

**Spanish 1**

**Intro to 2D and 3D art**

“Looks good. This does mean you won’t have a study hall which I don’t think will be a problem for you. Your other classes are advanced biology, english 9, geometry, and US history.” Peter smiled. “I am also going to partner you up with a girl in the same situation as you.” _Same situation? Less likely than she thinks._

Peter had to wait (even more) for this girl to come by. A knock at the door was a pleasant sound to him at this point. The counselor welcomed her in. 

“Hi, I’m Michelle Jones. I guess I have to show you around this place eh?” 

“Michelle, please be more considerate. Peter has never even been in this borough before, much less this school.” She made a two fingered salute to Hopper. 

“C'mon and follow me, Pete.” Michelle motioned to Peter and he followed her. 

“So what’s your name, I know she said Peter but I need details.” She had curly hair, it was somewhat tamed today. She had on a denim skirt with leggings and a seemingly random thrifted band tee. 

“I’m Peter S-Parker. Middle name Benjamin.” Peter caught himself almost saying his ‘real’ name. But to be honest he either doesn’t know or doesn’t remember his middle name. So he went with the one that he believed for all those years. 

“Age? Sex? Location?” She laughed but Peter did not understand the joke. 

“Um, thirteen almost fourteen. Boy. New York. I used to live in Queens.” 

“Cool. So uh, we should start where you would actually be having classes so Freshman hallways.” She led him through the maze that Peter now found to be his school. They were in a hallway with many doors and signs throughout, marking the doors as the different classrooms. She finally stopped. 

“This is the english room. Pretty boring if you ask me, but you get to read _the scarlet letter_ and that’s pretty lit.” Peter laughed at her language. He expected that his tour guide was going to be this super preppy private school kid. But she’s pretty normal. “What other classes are you taking?” 

“Um, advanced bio, geometry, us history, and like the computer science elective.” He handed her his schedule and she looked it over. 

“Looks pretty similar to mine. Well Parker, looks like you got someone to watch your back around here.” She put her hand around Peter’s shoulder and right then he finally stopped shaking because well… maybe this won’t be so bad after all. 

\--

_The girl begins to unzip the bag. Soldier grabs the chair and puts it upright. He puts the medication on the metal tray next to the chair._

_“Is the target awake?”_

_“No, I had to sedate him multiple times.” The soldier nodded. She unzipped the bag entirely and pulled the target out. She put him in the chair and tied him down. The soldier spoke, but it was quiet. Almost as if a piece of humanity found its way outside._

_“That-That’s just a child.”_

_\--_


	8. the struggle of memory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is a lot of bucky so apologies if you prefer the Peter stuff, but it's all important.

The tour felt like it lasted a few minutes but it was really a couple hours until he was back in doctor Cho’s car. He buckled his seatbelt and took a deep breath as Helen began to drive. The doctor was the first to break the silence. 

“How was it?” She asked, her eyes deadpanning onto the road. Peter replied a couple moments later. 

“Pretty good. The girl who showed me around was super nice. She’s like me and by that I mean a super comedian. And hey, thanks for taking me and pretending to be my mom for that long.” She smiled. 

“Of course. And I recorded the whole thing for your Mom and Dad. They are already so invested in your education.” She reached over and patted Peter’s shoulder as they pulled into the tower’s back garage. Peter smiled whilst he exited the car, ran to the elevator, and went up to the penthouse.

The first person he saw was Tony. To his father’s surprise, the first thing Peter did was run up and hug him. 

“Hey there,” he said, his voice full of the surprise he felt. Peter dropped the hug and looked at Tony, smiling. “Everything alright?” Peter nodded. 

“This school is awesome. They put me in the freshman class!” Tony smiled, but was wary in his intent. He of course, was moved up many grade levels while he was in school and for a while he blamed that for his depreciating mental health. After years of ponder he can finally say that him going from third to eighth grade did not cause him to end up like this, it was his father. Howard Stark was a shitty dad, and that’s all he will say about it. And looking back, Howard had his fair share of problems that Tony most likely inherited as well because once again: shitty dad. 

“I’m so proud of you, Peter.” Tony was smiling for real this time after his moment of thought. He put his arms around his son this time and praised him. _Is this what Morgan feels? Is this what parental love feels like,_ Peter thought. When they pulled away, Peter continued to tell Tony about his day. 

“This girl, Michelle, gave me a tour around the school. She’s super nice and is also in the accelerated freshman class. She’s super chill too.” Tony smiled and nodded. The door opened and Pepper entered with Morgan on her shoulders. 

“Petey you’re back!” Morgan shouted. She motioned for her mother to put her down and Pepper obliged. The smallest ran up to her brother and embraced him. Though due to her height (or lack of) she was stuck hugging his legs instead. 

“How was your first day?” Pepper asked while ignoring the small child on Peter’s legs. Nonetheless, Peter smiled. 

“Well I didn’t go to any classes, just registered my schedule and went on a tour with this really nice girl. I’m in the freshman class by the way.” Pepper’s face lit up. She came up and hugged him, first moving Morgan off of Peter’s legs. 

“You’re so smart. How did these two stupids make a genius? I’ll never know,” she laughed. Peter put his folder on the kitchen counter. This folder contained everything he will need to know about the school including his schedule. Pepper took out the schedule and read it with the smile still plastered on her face. 

“Petey gets to go to real school?” Morgan asked. Tony gave a sideways look while he tried to figure out what to say. 

“Well Mo, people don’t know that Petey is our kid. People think he’s just another boy. If you went to normal school people would know, and they would want to hurt you like they hurt Petey.” She frowned. 

“It’s okay Mo! I’m right here and I’m perfectly fine,” Peter said. He picked Morgan up in a big hug. He shook her around, finally getting a laugh out of her when she erupted into a fit of giggles. When he put her down she ran off into God knows where. 

“Hey uh, Mom? Dad? I think I want a cell phone.” Tony chuckled. 

“Of course kid. You do know that we design phones for like a living right? We could get you one for no money, even a new model that hasn’t been released yet.” 

“I’d be fine with just a normal phone that I can call my friends on instead of just email.” 

“Wait, you’ve been talking to your friends on email this whole time?” Tony asked. Peter nodded which sparked a laugh out of his father. This frightened Peter a bit. “You might as well be using AOL messenger.” Pepper laughed. “Just give me a second, I’ll go grab you a phone. And it won’t be the newest model.” He got into the elevator and went down to a different floor. 

Peter hasn’t been around this entire tower. He’s really only been in the basement, lobby, and top two floors. Everything in the middle is an enigma. But he knows that there are many labs and design rooms in there, but he’s never visited them. 

When Tony returns he has a small box containing all the setup for the phone. He finished the quick setup making the phone entirely Peter’s. 

“It’s about time, kid. You can do the rest. Set your wallpaper, put in contacts, set a password stuff like that.” Peter held the phone in his hands. It felt like it wasn’t meant to be held by him. It felt like this was something borrowed like one of the phones that his foster homes would give him. 

But this was _his._ He put in the only three numbers he knew: Pepper, Tony, and Ned. He’ll have to ask Michelle for hers. But doesn’t that count as asking a girl for her number like actually asking a girl for her number. Asking for a number is scary, so he decides that he will just bring it up naturally. 

“Thank you Dad,” Peter whispered. He jumped into Tony’s arms for a hug that was a surprise for all of them. 

“You’re welcome, kid.” His arms rubbed up and down Peter’s back. His eyes watered at the sound of him calling him Dad.

“Is it alright if I call you that? Dad?” Tony nodded. 

“Of course.” 

\--

_The child’s eyes opened. Like most targets he was moving. His hands were tied down to the chair. His face contorted. The girl approached him first._

_“Where are my Mommy and Daddy?” He wasn’t yelling as most did. It sounded more like a whimper than anything. But he is a child after all. This is different from most of his targets. The girl grips his chin._

_“They are dead. Your parents are gone.” She slapped him across the face. The soldier stayed back by the wall._

_“You will be hydra’s now,” she said before letting the boy’s chin go. The child continued to thrash about. He was trying to break out of his rope confinements._

_“Now we can’t have you doing that now can we?” She grabbed the syringe and put in a dose of the sedative. It’s not just a sedative, it’s very strong and can even paralyze the muscles for hours at a time. And for a child It has to be even worse._

_She drives the needle into his neck and he falls limp in the seat._

_\--_

Bucky was pacing around the apartment that he shares with Steve. Well technically he doesn’t because he has an apartment a couple floors down. 

“Buck what’s wrong?” Steve asked. Bucky shook his head and continued pacing. 

“That kid, you said he was Stark’s kid. I thought that his kid was dead or missing or something.” 

“They explained that he was in foster care this entire time. Apparently his kidnapper put him there.” Bucky sighed. _Something about this…_ Bucky was rubbing his forehead. “Well, you better clear up your brain fog because we have dinner.” Steve kissed Bucky’s forehead while he frowned. 

\--

“Are your ‘family dinners’ always this fancy?” Peter asked as he placed another fork next to a plate. There were four forks in total and it truly confused the young boy. 

“This isn’t that fancy, when I was a kid we practically threw royal banquets. This is just us having the oldies over.” Pepper snorted at Tony’s comment. 

“So what are we eating? I’m assuming it’s something fancy,” Peter asked. 

“Mom made spaghetti, it’s not only Morgan’s favorite, but also Bucky’s. And don’t worry, we will have plenty of food. You get used to making large portions when cooking for super soldiers.” Tony ruffled Peter’s curls. 

‘

“Take a seat boys, the others will be here soon,” Pepper said. Peter took a seat at the table and just a few seconds later the elevator beeped and Jarvis introduced the two visitors. “Yes Jarvis we can see who has arrived, you can stop,” Pepper said, her tone annoyed. The two men at the threshold gave a laugh. 

“Yes miss,” Jarvis said as he swiftly ceased his introduction. Peter decided that it was best if he went and greeted the visitors as well. He didn’t know how to go about this so he waited and observed how his parents greeted them. Tony brought Steve in for a hug first and Pepper gave Bucky the most gentle of embraces. She whispered something to him that Peter, of course, could make out. She leaned in and asked him in the most motherly of voices, “you've been alright these days?” And Bucky replied with a simple nod, keeping his eyes at his feet. 

“Peter!” Steve said as he brought the kid in for a giant hug. Peter was glad because this meant he didn’t have to initiate it himself. “Every time I see you, you grow taller. Soon enough you’ll be passing us up!” Peter chuckled. 

“Hello Mr. Barnes. I-I don’t want to hug you if you aren’t alright with it.” Steve was looking upon the two with a sad smile. Bucky, of course, did not want anything to seem amis so he gave his best smile and pulled Peter in for a hug. 

“Where is the other one?” Bucky said. He scratched his head comically and scrunched up his nose. He looked around and little laughs could be heard around the room. Bucky smiled and went to the kitchen, opening a cabinet and pulling out the booty found inside. She laughed in his arms. 

“I found it!” Bucky held her up, tickling her. 

Ever since she was born, Bucky absolutely loved Morgan. It was during the 2014 Winter Soldier Trial that all of Hydra’s killings came to light, including Tony’s parents. At first, Tony was filled with rage. The evidence for that trial came from Bucky, Steve, and Nat’s testimony along with some secretive Shield members personal investigations into some more elusive deaths; most of which they were correct about. 

It was late in the trial that another witness came forward. A defected Hydra agent. He gave testimony in defense of Bucky and told many horrifying personal accounts of what they did to him. If it weren’t for that man… Bucky wouldn’t be here. 

It still took a while for Tony to recompense with what The Winter Soldier did, but after a while, mainly the time that Bucky was in ‘psychiatric recovery’ with Shield, Tony forgave him. And then Bucky moved into the tower with Steve. Of course, Bucky was given his own suite, but for reasons that Tony didn’t know at the time, Bucky insisted on staying with Steve. 

And once Tony and Pepper had Morgan, they awarded the title of Godfather(s) to Steve and Bucky. For further information, Auntie Nat is the Godmother. And Bucky is absolutely in love with Morgan. 

Bucky was sitting opposite Peter at the table. It wasn’t intended to be like this, but once he was equally next to Steve and Morgan, Peter was right in front of him as he was in between his parents. 

The long haired man was staring into the eyes of the boy in front of him. There was something recognizable about him and Bucky could almost touch on what it was. A memory. He shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair before he finally picked up his fork and ate. He affixed his eyes away from the boy because each time he looked at Peter’s face he winced inside. 

“Is everything alright, dear?” Steve whispered. Bucky nodded and forced a smile. 

“Fine,” he whispered and he continued to eat. 

“So what is going on in the world of Steve and Bucky?” Pepper asked. Steve’s eyes drifted and his lips curled up in a smile. He turned around and gave Bucky a look that asked a question without words and he nodded. 

“We’re getting married!” Steve said. A smile finally adorned Bucky’s face. Pepper and Tony’s eyes lit up at almost the same time. 

  
“That’s amazing! But I have one question, who asked?” Pepper said. Bucky laughed. 

“Me,” he said softly. Steve elbowed him in the side. “Steve came back from a mission and after each one that he comes back from we have a little celebration. White wine, candles, flowers, durex, a nice home cooked meal. And when he was well fed I got down on one knee and he cried like a baby.” Steve smiled. 

“Thanks for embarrassing me dear,” he whispered. 

“Congratulations guys, have you thought of a date?” Tony said. “Just letting you know, I’m not the best at wedding planning,” Tony laughed. 

“He’s really not, once we busted out the binders he started freaking out. Good thing we settled for a small ceremony,” Pepper said. “I guess Y2K was a pretty wild year for all of us. Except that the majority of us at this table did not legally exist.” Pepper laughed at her own joke. Steve also gave a chuckle. Peter and Morgan did not get the joke. 

“We don’t have a date yet, but we’re thinking spring perhaps March.” Peter rolled his eyes. The adults chatted for a bit about weddings and rings and white suits. It took a bit before the conversation died down and they continued on eating. 

Bucky’s eyes averted from Peter for as long as he could. Peter didn’t exactly catch on to Bucky’s wariness so he asked something that he wanted to know. “Mr. Barnes, do you ever decorate your metal arm?” Steve laughed but Bucky stayed silent. His eyes blinked up at the child. He was still silent. 

“Buck? Peter asked you a question,” Steve said. Bucky’s breathing was heavy, Peter could hear it. He got up out of his chair and pushed it in, but neglected to use his gentle hand and ended up nearly throwing the chair. He ran out of the room, not trying to go into any specific room but found himself in one he didn’t recognize. His body slammed against the wall, sliding down until he was in a bracing position. 

“Bucky? Bucky it’s me, It’s Steve. Let’s breathe okay?” Bucky shook his head. 

“I can’t-” 

“In and out, hold it for seven seconds let it out for eight I’ll do it with you.” 

“I can’t keep looking at that kid, I can’t do it,” Bucky gasped. Steve’s face turned. 

“What do you mean you can’t look at him?” 

“When I look at his face, all I can see is that little boy strapped to a chair,” Bucky began to cry. “And I tried so hard to save him. But-” 

“But?” 

“It was him, wasn’t it? That little kid in the chair. It’s hard to remember what that brown piece of paper said, but I think…. It’s the face Stevie,” Bucky’s head fell onto Steve’s chest. His eyes blurred over as he cried and Steve rocked him. “I wanted to save him. This old lady she…. I can’t fucking remember!” He slammed his head against his hands. Steve rubbed his back calmly. 

“It’s alright if you can’t remember. Just breathe…” Steve moved his hands up and down to help him count his breaths. When he finally came to he looked around and saw that the room was covered in posters and the bed had blue speckled sheets. There were photographs of Tony and Pepper, books adorning the surfaces, and some figurines. It hit Bucky that this is a child’s bedroom, and not just any child but _the child._ Bucky closed his eyes again and slumped to the floor. Steve’s eyes were also quite teary as he stroked Bucky’s hair. 

The worst part was, Peter heard every word they said. 

  
  
  
  
  



	9. scrambled eggs and secret snapshots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter's first day of school goes as well as could be, or does it?

Jarvis awoke Peter at 6:30. The soft voice rang out, “Good morning Peter, It seems you have a school day upon you. It’s best you arise.” 

“Most alarm clocks just scream at me,” Peter replied as he swung his legs across the bed. It was moments later that Peter realized what day it was. It was his first true day of school. He looked to the new backpack on the floor, now filled with fresh school supplies. He smiled, going to use the toilet and wash his face. After that he jumped out of his room and into the kitchen. 

“It’s. Your. First day of school,” Peter heard being sung across the kitchen. He looked around for the source of the song but only heard more singing. It was Pepper’s voice for sure. 

“It’s. Your. First day of school,” that was Tony. The singing was getting closer. 

“Petey first day of school!” Now that was by no means singing. It was just a child yelling. Then he saw them. Pepper holding a tray and Tony next to her with Morgan on his shoulders. Peter started laughing. When they finally approached him Peter could see everything on the tray. A giant pile of scrambled eggs, bacon, and nutella muffins. Peter smiled unconsciously. 

“We never got to celebrate your first day of kindergarten or middle school, but we sure can celebrate your first day of high school,” Tony said. A tear came to his eye as Pepper put the tray down. Peter’s eyes went wide at the amount of food. 

“This-this-” Peter’s voice kept fading. He couldn’t finish the words he wanted to say. He wanted to say how much they have helped him and how they have given him more love than any foster parents. But the words didn’t come out. Only choked sobs. So he simply whispered, “thank you,” and jumped up to hug them. One arm was around each parent and they were just as weepy as Peter. 

“Okay now let’s dry these eyes and eat. This is your first day of school not your f-wedding,” Tony said catching himself before he made a certain comment. Pepper caught it though, but thankfully she was able to brush it off. It was only two years ago…

“Are you guys going to eat?” 

“Of course, Mom made eggs for all of us. Thing is, you almost take the whole dozen,” Tony said, laughing. Peter looked down, reverting to his old ways for a moment. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. Pepper put his hand on her child’s shoulder. 

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” she said. She leant down and kissed Peter’s cheek before sitting down.First she put a small portion of eggs on Morgan’s plate along with some fruit. Pepper and Tony had just the same with some bigger portions. 

Tony cleared his throat and put down his fork, beginning to speak,“so Petey, you know we never got to send you off to kindergarten. So we are going to do the whole shabang right now. We started with the first day of school song and after you finish eating we are going to take loads of cheesy photos.” 

“He bought a sign and everything, one of those chalkboard things.” Peter and Pepper both laughed after her remark. Peter scoffed down his food. Morgan sucked on an apple slice for God knows why. Once Peter finished his breakfast, his mother spoke. 

“Go get dressed, I put some clothes on your bed.” Peter nodded and got up. He wondered when Pepper put clothes on his bed. 

They were new, Peter had never seen this outfit before. Dark-ish jeans, a graphic tee, and a denim jacket. These were the kind of clothes he always wished he could wear, but his old foster families never got him new clothes. He was usually the second or third hand his old clothes passed through. 

He slipped the clothes on. They were so comfortable. He picked his backpack up and took his new phone off the charger. He had a new message from Michelle. 

-You best be ready for your first day of school, dork

Admittedly, Peter wasn’t good at texting. He didn’t really know how to reply. So he put a smiley face and thumbs up, marveling at the StarkPhone’s emoji keyboard. 

She didn’t reply. 

He threw the phone in his backpack. Stepping out of the room he did a 360 in front of his parents. 

“How do I look?” Peter asked rhetorically. 

“You’re very pretty Petey!” Morgan shouted. Tony chortled. 

“You look wonderful,” Pepper replied. They stood up and Peter knew what was about to happen. Tony went to the desk and grabbed the camera and sign. 

Peter finally got a good look at it, and it sure made him chuckle. At the top were the words ‘First Day of School’ written in large letters and before it was a blank for his name. Below were blanks for grade and favorite color and what you want to be when you grow up. 

“I don’t know what I want to be,” Peter whispered. 

“What?” Pepper said. 

“No one’s ever asked,” Peter replied. Tony looked away, wincing. 

“That’s alright, we don’t have to write anything on it,” Pepper said with a smile. “Do you want to write on it?” she asked, handing Peter the chalk. Peter nodded and took the piece into his hand. He started with the bottom. He wrote in red for favorite color and 13 for age, though almost fourteen. He put 9 for grade and once he reached the top he hesitated. He breathed, smiled, and began writing. 

Peter Stark

Tony wiped away his eyes, feeling so much more emotional than he thought he would be. He cleared his throat, “alright now hold it up and I’ll take your picture.” Peter smiled and held up the sign. Tony snapped a couple photos while Pepper hung around Tony’s shoulder. Peter could see that she was getting emotional as well. 

“We have another surprise for you,” Pepper said. Tony smiled. 

“What?” Peter had no idea what else they could say that could make this better. 

“We’re going to drive you to school,” Tony said. Peter was shocked. This wasn’t what they planned. Helen or Happy were going to drive him. What if someone saw? They could see the worry in Peter’s eyes. Tony’s hand went to Peter’s shoulder. 

“It’ll be okay. It’s just to school and the car windows are dark. It’s fine.” Peter nodded, feeling better about the thought. None of his foster parents had driven him to school. He either rode the bus or walked. 

“I think that’s great, thank you.” Tony’s arm wrapped around his son, pulling him in close. In the spur of the moment he went and kissed Peter’s cheek. 

“I think we should get going,” Pepper whispered. Peter threw his backpack over his shoulder, smiling ear to ear. They went to the garage and entered the car with the most tinted windows. Peter was in the backseat. Tony and Pepper had sunglasses on with hats. Peter felt like he was a celebrity (it didn’t hit him that he actually was). 

“Just a couple more minutes Petey, and just remember if anything happens just call us or Happy or Helen. They’ll pick you up.”    
  


“I’ll be fine,” Peter said. But the truth was that his heart was pounding out of his chest. This wasn’t like any first day of school. Here he had a secret, and one that he didn’t want to share yet. He didn’t know if he would be fine. So he convinced himself that he would be fine. 

He exhaled. Once he opened his eyes, the glass-covered school was in front of him. 

“We love you,” his parents said. Peter smiled. 

“Love you too,” Peter said albeit quietly. But his parents heard it, and they smiled. He stepped out of the car, keeping the door practically closed as he exited. Once he was out he waved to them. 

“Hey Pete! You made it!” He jumped at the sudden noise. Tony drove away. Peter turned around to face MJ. 

“Yep I made it, now let’s go to class.” She nodded and led him through the full hallways of Brenton-Fischer. They went to the biology lab as it was their first class. Michelle opened the door and Peter was almost as shocked to see all the equipment in the room. When they went on the tour, all of the science stuff was packed up. But now it was all out. There were microscopes on every desk and new textbooks for every student. 

“Holy shit,” Peter whispered. 

“What? It’s just a science lab.” 

“My old schools never had anything like this. We always had to share books and microscopes,” Peter said, still flabbergasted by the lab. 

“Well that’s what you get when your school is endowed by Tony Stark.” 

“Really?” Before this Peter assumed that he went to this school because it was closest to the tower but now he knows, Tony owns this school. Not that it was a problem or anything. Michelle led him to her table where he sat next to her. 

“Is the teacher going to do that thing where she takes me to the front of the class and is all ‘this is the new student’ because I hate that.” 

“Unfortunately,’ Michelle remarked before the bell rang. Peter flinched at the loudness. A young woman wearing a white coat over her dress came into the room. 

“Good morning young scientists. I have news today! We have a new student.” Peter dropped his head to his desk. “Come and introduce yourself Peter.” Peter sighed and got up and trudged to the front of the classroom. 

“Hi, my name’s Peter S-Parker. I just moved in near here, um, with my new foster family. I’m really hoping that this will be my forever home. That sounded cheesy, sorry.” 

“You’re quite alright Peter, now let’s all give him a good Brenton-Fischer welcome.” 

“Wait, Peter Parker? From Queens?” a boy in the back exclaimed. 

“Yeah I lived there a couple times,” Peter said. 

“You’re that skinny kid that I beat up in the first grade! We went to the same elementary school.” Peter’s eyes widened and he laughed. 

“Eugene Thompson, you called yourself the Flash.” Now Flash was the one with wide eyes and red cheeks. 

“Um, my name is Flash.” 

“Holy. Shit. Your name is Eugene!” Michelle yelled from her seat. The room erupted with mumbling and laughter. He stared Peter down. He mouthed, “you’re dead.” 

Well shit, it’s already his first day and he’s made an enemy. Just wonderful. 

  
  


But other than that incident, the rest of the day went great. He went to class, introduced himself to every one of them. The teacher asked questions and then he answered them with flying colors. 

“No wonder you were moved up,” Michelle whispered to him in sixth period. “You’re like a whole ass genius.” Peter blushed. No one had ever called him smart like that. Not even his teachers from his old schools. 

“Thank you,” Peter whispered, barely audible to the unenhanced ear. He didn’t see her smile. 

It was only forty minutes later that Peter and MJ were in 7th period, the last class of the day. Everything went so smoothly for Peter, he didn’t even eat lunch by himself. He leaned over to Michelle and whispered to her, “hey thanks for being here for me.” She smiled and leaned over, draping an arm around his shoulder. 

“No problem, pal,” she said. “You wanna walk home together?” She asked. Peter almost said yes, but then remembered that Happy was going to pick him up, and that she can’t know where he lives.

“I would, but my dad is going to pick me up,” he said with a frown. 

“Your foster Dad?” She asked. Peter caught himself. He said  _ dad _ not  _ foster dad _ . 

“Yeah, totally.” There were only a couple more minutes in the day and most of the students were going to pack up their supplies, so Peter did as well. He pulled his phone out of his backpack. He had it on silent all day. But when he opened the screen he saw that he had multiple messages. 

Ned: Hey bro how’s your first day going?   
  


T: You doing okay?

P: Call if you need anything

“Who’s T and P?” Michelle asked, making Peter jump. 

“Oh- uh- they’re my foster parents, um- Terrence and Patricia. Yeah, I don’t really like their names so I just put their initials in my phone.” 

“Cool, my parents don’t have the greatest names either, but I don’t think any kid likes their parents’ names.” Peter nodded in agreement. He decided to respond to Ned’s message. 

Peter: Sry didn’t see this til now. School’s pretty lit, specially when it’s a rich kid school lol. Nothing like Sentinel Jr.

Peter of course was referring to one of the middle schools that Peter and Ned both went to at one point. The epitome of forgotten trash. Peter got so many black eyes there he lost count. 

The bell rang. Peter and MJ walked together as far as the front door but then parted ways. She walked off while Peter scoured the parking lot for Happy’s car, but found nothing. Though his eyes caught onto the same car he took to school that day. He squinted, thinking that it would disappear and that Helen Cho would show up and walk him home. But there it was, the same car with the tinted windows. And his goddamn eyes could see who was inside that car.  _ No, it wasn’t supposed to happen like this.  _ And Peter didn’t know what to do. Of course, he had to get into the car. He couldn’t just run away and leave Tony sitting there. So he pulled his hood over his head and walked to the car. When he got there he saw his Dad with his hat on, trying his best to conceal his face. Peter opened the door just a crack and slid in. 

“Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t know I would have to pick you up. We’re going to go home, everything’s okay.” Tony could see how heavily Peter was breathing and how scared he was. “But you gotta tell me everything about your first day.” And then Peter was smiling again. 

But he didn’t see Eugene Flash standing a couple feet away. And he didn’t see his phone. And above all, Peter didn’t see that phone take two pictures. 


	10. why are they all so proud of me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> after Peter returns from school everyone is so happy with him, but why the heck is everyone so proud of him and where did Bucky go?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for reading, your comments are so fueling. I apologize if uploads have been a little slow, ever since we had to leave school my writing schedule has been all out of wack. So I thank you all for sticking with me.
> 
> ilysm  
> -LC

Of course the moment Peter got home, his family and ‘family’ were all over him. Pepper was the first one to rush up and hug him. 

“Petey, how was your first day? Did you make it to all your classes? Did anyone bother you?” Peter put his hand on her shoulder. 

“Mom,I’m okay, everything was awesome. MJ is in all my classes, she took me everywhere.” 

“I’m so proud of you sweetie,” Pepper said, pulling Peter in for a hug. He melted into it, his head falling into her shoulder. 

“Okay, don’t go into the waterworks just yet, there’s a couple other people who want to give you their most worrying speeches. But it’s great to know that everything is fine,” Tony said. Pepper let Peter out of the hug. It was then that he saw the other people in the room. Of course he had seen Steve a lot, but the other woman he has only seen a couple of times. 

“Natasha right? Black Widow of course,” Peter said, blushing in front of one of his superhero icons. 

“Yeah, I’ve heard so much about you. And we’re really proud of you.” 

“Why is everyone so proud of me? All I did was go to school!” Peter said, totally confused. 

“It’s just, your life has changed so much and going to school is a really big step Pete,” Steve said. Peter shrugged. 

“It felt like every other first day of school I’ve ever had.” Pepper put her hand on Peter’s shoulder.

“And that’s wonderful, it’s just that it’s not like every other day. You have this massive secret that’s not easy to keep. It’s okay for people to be proud of you sweetie,” Pepper said. Peter nodded. “I hate to leave but I have a meeting. Have fun,” she said, leaning down and kissing Peter on the forehead. 

“I ran into a kid who went to one of my old schools. He’s a total douche now,” Peter laughed. Tony laughed behind him. “Where’s Mr. Bucky?” Peter asked Steve. 

“He’s in the restroom, of course he had to pee right before you got here. Classic Barnes.” Tony laughed again. They continued on, pushing Peter to chronicle every second of his day. 

  
  


Bucky slid down the wall of Peter’s bedroom. He covered his eyes, trying to forget that he was crying. He just went in to get a closer look, to see what this kid turned out to be. But unfortunately this visit to the room ended just the same way that the last one started. He walked around the perimeter for a bit, looking at the posters on the wall and the pictures on his wardrobe. But once he made it to the queen bed he broke. 

Because for all this time he tried to convince himself that he was getting these kids mixed up, that he was confusing two different missions. But then he looked to the bed and atop those sheets was Peter’s bear, affectionately known as Beary. He picked it up, and there was when he snapped.

  
  
  


_ “Target would not let go of the object. I suggest we destroy it,” she said. The soldier nodded. Despite the tight grip of the object, a good dose of the sedative brought it right to the ground. The soldier picked it up and took it to a side area. He considered taking his knife to the bear-like toy but another one of those twitches caught him by surprise, causing him to drop the object.  _

**_‘We’ll call him Bucky Bear, every kid will be playing with them!’_ ** _ The soldier shook his head and body, leaving the bear behind. His handler said that those twitches were a side effect of his medication.  _

_ But the twitches were only getting worse. Every day he would hear voices. But he wouldn’t dare to speak to his handlers about it. They would just give him more medications which made his missions even harder.  _

_ “Yeah and I threw up?” Shit another one. The soldier shook his head and hands.  _

_ “I’ve received word from Siberia. We are to move him early. He will be conditioned there. Tomorrow evening a helicopter will come at these coordinates.” She put a piece of paper in front of him.  _

_ She wasn’t muzzled like The Soldier was. Though she did have goggles on most of the time, but for the entirety of this mission he had his muzzle on, covering his nose and mouth.  _

_ But the voices were only getting worse. Almost every minute of every day he hears the same voice yelling “SAVE THE BOY” and “the city isn’t too far away.” It isn't, it's barely any time on his motorcycle. The voice tells him the same instructions over and over.  _

_ Sedate the Boy _

_ Put the boy in the bag _

_ Get on the motorcycle while the girl is asleep.  _

_ Take him to the city.  _

_ Find the apartment.  _

  
  


_ Recently he was looking at The Girl’s computer thing. The Soldier didn’t understand why she could have an internet device just like the handlers had. But he saw articles about a plane crash. A kid that was almost exactly the age of The Boy. He was missing after the crash, no body recovered.  _

_ “ _ **_This is our chance_ ** _ ,” The voice said. And his broken mind made a plan.  _

  
  


“Don’t you think John Snow has been in the bathroom for a bit too long?” Tony asked Steve. Steve looked down at his analog watch and raised his eyebrows. 

“Yeah, I should go and check on him,” Steve replied. He stood up but Peter of all people stood with him. 

“You stay here, I’ll go find him. He probably got lost inside these massive bathrooms,” Peter laughed. He didn’t see the worried looks on Tony and Steve’s faces when Peter got up. But for an unknown reason, they didn’t follow him. 

“Hey, Mr. Bucky? You okay in there?” He said to the bathroom door. To his surprise, the door opened, unlocked. And there was no Bucky. He went down the hallway and thought that he had just gone back to the others. On his way he passed by his bedroom. Even the quietest of sobs could be heard loud and clear. 

For a moment Peter considered walking on, just leaving this one alone. But instincts got the best of him. He went inside his bedroom and saw him, sitting with his knees to his chest. 

“James?” He said. The head turned. 

“Oh my god,” Bucky whispered. He put his hands over his face to cover his streaming tears.

“What are you doing with Beary?” Peter asked. Bucky’s eyes went completely black from Peter’s perspective. His hand was twitching.

“Steve! Dad! Hurry!” He yelled. They ran into Peter’s bedroom and saw the blanked out Bucky. 

“He’s not seizing, just give me a minute,” Steve said softly. Peter and Tony left the room. Tony pulled Peter into his arms. 

“Shh, it’s okay. He’s just having a bad memory. It happens.” 

“But he only got like this after I asked if he was holding Beary,” Peter said. Tony’s face dropped. 

“He- he was holding Beary?” Tony asked. Peter nodded. Steve came out of the room with Bucky leaning on him. 

“I’m going to take him home, let him rest. Sorry we crashed your party.” Bucky’s eyes were half lidded, almost like he was asleep. They left and Natasha followed along with them. Peter sat on the couch next to Tony. A beat passed before Peter asked. 

“What’s wrong with James.” Tony put his arm around Peter so his head fell onto his father’s chest. 

“He’s about the same age as Steve. He was kept by a bunch of bad people that made him do bad things. But they did even worse things so he didn’t remember what they made him do. Sometimes he remembers and it’s not very pleasant for him. He’s going to rest for a while.” Peter kept his head on Tony’s chest. 

  
  


“But why did he freak out in my room? And why was he holding Beary?” Tony put his hand in Peter’s hair. 

“I don’t know baby, I don’t know.” 

  
  


When Pepper came back an hour later, Peter had fallen asleep on Tony’s chest. As Pepper had said during her pregnancy, “something about that blue light just puts me right to sleep.” She’s right. It works wonders. 

“What did I miss?” Tony sighed after she spoke. So she plopped herself down on the sofa next to her husband. 

“Bucky had a freakout,” Tony whispered. His wife’s eyes widened. 

“But he’s been doing so well,” she said. Bucky had been doing well, as far as they know. He hadn’t passed out in the middle of dinner for a very long time. So this was new? “Do we know what triggered him?” Tony shrugged. 

“I don’t know, we found him in Peter’s room. Well, Peter found him. And- he was holding Beary.” A hand went to cover her mouth. “It just makes one think,” his voice scattered off. 

“That doesn’t matter right now. Let’s just sit with our baby,” she said, putting her hand in his little curls. “It feels like just yesterday he was screaming on my chest just after being born. Or on the contrary when I saw those two lines,” she laughed. Tony rolled his eyes. 

Though he wouldn’t admit it at the time, the day they found out was the best day of his life. Seeing that little plastic test stick turned his life around. He wasn’t just going to be some face of a company. He decided that he was going to earn his name being in the company. He got a Phd and stopped drinking. Though we all know where the story goes after that…

Peter woke up a little while later, still laying on Tony. 

“Hey Petey,” Pepper said softly. She gave him a little kiss on the forehead. 

“Hey mom,” he said, his voice groggy. “What happened to James? Is he okay?” Pepper stroked Peter’s hair again. 

“Shh, we don’t need to worry about that now,” she said. “You’re here and we’re cuddling and that’s what matters. I missed out on too many of these with my baby.” Pepper kissed Peter’s temple once more.

“I love you mom,” Peter said. This time it was fully audible and for once, Peter intended it to be heard. 

\- -

“It was  **Me** !” Bucky yelled. He was having another one. “No! I did that! I took him from his parents, his family!” Steve sat near him and tried to calm him down. But he never could. Sometimes it wasn’t bad, but other times things would be broken and thrown across the room. Steve couldn’t know how bad things would get. 

“No, sweetie. Look at me, that wasn’t you. The Winter Soldier took that boy. And whatever happened, Hydra didn’t take him to Siberia because he was in New York.” He opened his arms to see if that was what Bucky wanted. He didn’t fall into them though, he fell to the ground. He screamed as tears fell down his face. Steve rose from the bedside, crouching next to Bucky. 

“Do you want me to take it off?” He said in his most soothing voice.” Bucky gave something of a nod. Steve pressed a couple buttons on the arm and it hissed, slowly coming off as Steve twisted it. He moved it out of sight. “Come over here, let’s lay down.” 

“I want…” his voice faded off. Steve brought him into his arms. He rubbed him lovingly, and as soft as possible. “Sleepy pill,” he whispered. Of course Steve knew that he would need no help falling asleep. But when he’s sedated he doesn’t have nightmares. Something that he depended on in his earlier years of recovery. 

“Okay, are you okay with me letting go of you?” he asked. Bucky nodded and with Steve’s help, rolled over. Steve got up and grabbed one of his pills. He makes a cup of tea while he’s up then brings it back to the bedroom. Bucky was laying on his left side, curled up like a scared kitten. Steve sat him up on the bed, putting the cup of tea in his hand. In the other he put the pill, specifically made for him. Bucky put the tiny pill on his tongue, using the tea to swallow it down. 

“Hold me,” he whispered as his voice couldn’t produce any other volume. Steve sighed lovingly and pulled him to his chest. Bucky drifted off moments later. Though this was different from all the other times that Steve held his lover while he slept. Usually his mind was filled with the most adorning thoughts as he admired the man in his arms. 

But this time he had thoughts just as Bucky had before he fell asleep. Inside, Steve didn’t think Bucky was lying. He knew that Hydra was behind Peter’s kidnapping. But from previous experience, he knew that this wasn’t something he could keep from Tony. 

Avengers Tower was quiet that night, which is to be looked back on with fondness.


	11. -not a chapter- just a drop of blood moodboards

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i wanted to make some moodboards so here we are

**The Ghost Story, The Girl, and The Boy**

**A Stark**

**okay time to stop procrastination and write the next chapter**


	12. My Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter of Just a Drop of Blood. Peter tells the world his story, and learns to create his own.

That morning, Pepper woke up like most other mornings. It was around 5:30 in the morning and she was in a massive, sleepy embrace with her husband. For those wondering, it was a hard journey getting Tony to go to bed at normal hours. 

Pepper was so used to this routine that he body stirred before Jarvis could even wake her. She rolled over, now facing Tony’s chest. She put a kiss on his cheek then his lips before getting out of bed. She went to their private ensuite to get ready for the day. 

“Morning Jarvis, everybody sleep alright?” She looked in the mirror, surveying her face. 

“Everything is perfect ma’am, papers will be released in thirty minutes.” 

“Sounds great.” She spent the rest of that time getting ready. Tony rolled out of bed at some point, though he didn’t have much getting ready. He simply ruffled his hair and put on a t- shirt. They both went straight to work, Peter going to school with Helen. 

Tony was in the lab when Jarvis spoke up. Pepper was in her office. 

“Sir, I would request that you and Miss Potts come to the living room.” Tony was confused of course, he had no idea what Jarvis was going on about. Though he was still wary, and went to the living room right away. 

On the TV was CNN. Pepper was sitting there, her face in her hands. Tony went up to her, encasing her in his arms. 

“What’s happening?” He said. Pepper picked up what looked like any other tabloid newspaper and handed it to him. He took one look at the front cover and shivered. He knew that this would happen but so soon? 

There was a big picture, colored. It was of Tony picking Peter up from school. Taken from behind, there was a clear shot of Tony’s face, smiling, along with a kid with a backpack. The headline was TONY STARK’S SECRET. The article was mainly pictures with a smattering of captions. The only substance was a list of theories of who this ‘mystery boy’ could be. 

“It’s definitely someone from the school. How else would they know this stuff?” Pepper said. 

Tony looked and saw the rest of the article. It read,  
“The kid here is Peter. He was in the foster care system for the majority of his life. A student who attended one of his former schools said that it seemed fishy how he was now attending one of the most prestigious STEM schools in the country. He snapped this photo of Peter being picked up by Tony Stark. Could this be the same Peter Stark who was kidnapped years ago? Or did Stark crumble under his grief, adopting a poor foster child? We can only speculate.” 

“This is terrible. What are they saying?” Tony pointed to the TV. Pepper unmuted it. While there was no volume, it looked like any other CNN panel. A couple faces talking it out. But when she turned it on, it showed a whole other story. 

“Wouldn’t we know if Peter Stark was found?” One voice said. 

“The family could have kept it a secret, protect the kid and all that,” Another said. Tony grabbed the remote and turned the television off. 

“We need to get Peter,” Pepper said. She got up from the couch and started making calls. Tony just sat with his head in his hands. What are we going to do? Pepper hung up the phone, “Helen is going to pick Peter up, unscheduled doctor’s appointment is the excuse.” 

She sat down next to Tony, finally breaking down. Her torso collapsed into her lap. Tony took her waist and held her. 

“My baby-we just got him back.” Tony’s hand caught her tears. 

“He’s still ours, it’s just- people know he’s ours.” 

“He’s going to be devastated,” She whimpered before falling into Tony’s chest. 

Peter was devastated. When his name was called over the loudspeaker, he already got a couple looks, different from a usual name call. He went to the office to see Helen Cho standing, looking nervous. 

“Hi sweetie, Looks like we forgot about your doctors appointment, so that’s where we’re going.” He was now also confused and a little nervous. His spidey sense was buzzing. He silently followed her. She handed him a hat and sunglasses, telling him to put them on. 

“Why?” 

“It’s sunny,” she said through gritted teeth. He shrugged, his spidey sense still being crazy, almost hurting. 

“I think we should go around,” Peter said. Helen was perturbed, does he know? 

“This way is fine, I’m parked over here.” She took his hand, walking to the car as though everything was normal. But Peter had caught onto that by now. When they had pulled out of the school lot and were on the road Peter finally inquired. 

“What the hell is going on,” he asked. The doctor took a deep breath. 

“They found out.” His eyes widened. 

“Like- the people?” She nodded, her hands steady on the wheel. “Is it on TV?” She nodded again somberly. “What are mom and dad going to do?” For this she stayed silent. They went the long way to the tower, pulling into the parking garage and using the private elevator. 

Peter was sweating during the ride up, what were they going to do? They weren’t just going to tell the media that Tony and Pepper’s child had returned right? Right? 

“Mom,” Peter said when he got off the elevator, going to hug her. He could see the distress in her eyes and body language. She put her hand on the back of his head. 

“It’ll be okay sweetie, I promise. We’ll work through this.” They stayed in their embrace for a while, until Tony told them to get down to business. 

“So what’s actually happening,” he asked. Pepper took a deep breath. 

“A picture of you getting into a car with Tony was leaked to the press. It made the TV news this morning. What I need to ask is, what do you want to do?” 

“Well we can’t keep this a secret forever. I don’t want to live in fear as Peter Parker. Because I’m not him. I feel like I'm doing him an injustice, stealing his name.” Tony’s hands fluffed his curls softly. 

“Do you want to tell people that you’re-you know- Peter Stark,” Tony said. Peter thought for a brief moment. 

“Well I know I will have to eventually.” Pepper nodded. She, with her amazing skills of masking in hand, is the one most terrified right now. She spent years hiding the fact that her only son was gone, presumed dead for years. Now that his identity has been released to the public by someone probably looking for some cheap revenge with a pretty penny to come with it. 

“So we discussed the options with some others. It’s totally your decision which one we go with,” Tony said. Peter nodded. Tony’s pulled up his tablet. 

“1. We tell the public that the photo was of Tony Stark going on a Wishes trip, that this foster child wanted a car ride with Iron Man.” Peter frowned. This was the tamest option, that also involved lying to the public. None of them wanted this, but it had to be an option. 

“2. We tell the public that Peter Stark is indeed alive, but that the child in the photo was a special needs child going on a wishes trip. We would say that Peter Stark is living privately after his captivity.” Albeit this was better, he could keep his school life the same. But still, he’s lying to everyone. 

“3. We reveal that Peter Stark is alive and was the child in the photo. We do not describe anything of his kidnapping or childhood, we simply say that he would not like to make a statement. Of course this means that your school would know that you are Peter Stark.” 

“And 4, the final option. We reveal that Peter Stark has been found and that he wants to make a statement. You talk directly to the media, with as much detail as you want. We can disclose that you were in foster care or not.” Peter’s mind focused on three and four. He pondered for a few moments, until a lightbulb went on in his brain. 

“We need to make a statement,” he said quickly. “I can’t lie, and I can’t stay silent. Number four is the best option.” Pepper’s eyes widened. That was the most extreme option. She was a two and three rooter. Tony still wanted three. 

“Really sweetie, are you sure? Everyone at school, everyone in the world will know this.” Her hand was rubbing his back. He nodded. 

“Yes. I’m sure.” Tony nodded. 

“Well if that’s what you want, then we should get down to business.” He started typing on his tablet. “Okay. We’re going on CNN tomorrow morning. They’re going to do a little special on the story of the Starks. That special will end with the three of us talking about your return. But the question is, will you tell them about foster care?” Minutes of silence passed but he still didn’t know what to say. 

“I don’t think so. I don’t want to-um-make the system look bad.” 

“Hey, it’s okay. If you aren’t okay with talking about some of your history then we won’t talk about it.” Tony said, rubbing his son’s shoulder lovingly. Peter nodded, taking a deep breath. 

“Well okay then, let’s get down to business.” 

\--

Peter didn’t get much sleep that night. He was far too jittery about what was to come. He had just fallen asleep when his mother came into his room, fully dressed telling him that it was time to get up. 

“Hi mom,” Peter said with that adorable groggy voice. She rubbed his side. 

“Get much sleep?” He shook his head. “Me neither, but we need to get going. I got your clothes out.” Pepper kissed his forehead and left the room. 

Peter swung out of bed, grabbing the clothes his mother left out for him. Just a nice polo and slacks. His shower was hot, but he didn’t clean himself. He just stood there, going over everything that could happen in his head. He stepped out, took a glucose gummy to wake himself up (the hot shower didn’t do much), and put on the clothes. 

When he left his room he was met by his whole family; Morgan, Tony, Pepper, Steve, Bucky, and Nat. 

“Hi guys,” Peter said, a little wary of what was happening in his kitchen. 

“Hey Pete! Come take a seat, Bucky and your mom made breakfast.” Bucky. In Peter’s mind he remembered what he heard him say. He was the one that took Peter away. He slapped the thought away from his mind. 

“Wow, thanks guys.” He sat down next to Steve and Morgan, beginning to dig into his food. Delicious. He ate the whole plate in the span of a couple minutes. 

“Are you okay Peter?” 

“Yes I’m okay why wouldn’t I be okay?” he said his mouth filled with eggs. “It’s not like they know I’m spiderman or anything.” His eyes widened after he said that. 

“Peter…” Pepper’s hand went to her forehead. Nat, Steve, and Bucky were also surprised with a tad of confusion mixed in. 

“Yes okay, we’re getting everything out. I’m the swinging hero of queens. I stick to walls. Questions?” Bucky slowly raised his hand slowly. 

“You can stick to walls? That's not a thing in the suit?” Peter shook his head. 

“I guess we’re letting everything out today.” He got out of his chair, jumped up and attached himself to the ceiling. He walked across, climbing down the wall and back to the floor. Bucky eyes wandered. He was the most confused creature. 

“Well I think we should all just move on from that.” He took another spoonful of eggs into his mouth. 

“So what’s going to happen when we get there?” Peter asked. Tony nodded. 

“We will arrive at the studio and they will prep us, tell us stuff that we don’t know yet. They’ll put stage makeup on us and then we sign some papers. Then we go on the air, everything sound okay?” Peter nodded with a smile. 

“It actually does, I”m surprised how comfortable I am with this.” 

“I am glad. And speaking of, we need to leave in about ten minutes; Morgan, Peter, go brush your teeth,” Tony said with his dad voice. They got up and went to the bathroom, together. 

Peter put the kiddie stool by the sink for Morgan. Peter began to brush his teeth. Morgan stood silently. 

“What’s wrong Mo?” Peter asked, barely talking the toothbrush out of his mouth to speak. 

“What’s happening?” He exhaled. With all this commotion no one’s properly sat her down and explained everything. 

“Well, Mo, someone took a picture of me and daddy. And then they spread it around. And everyone started telling stories about that picture. But no one knew the real story. So me, mommy, and daddy are going to the story people to tell the real one. Do you know what that means?” She shook her head. 

“It means that everyone will know I’m your big brother. We won’t have to keep it a secret anymore. It means that we can go to the playground together, but also that people will take pictures of us.” 

“But I want people to know that you are my big brother!” Peter touched her shoulders. 

“That’s good, because after today I won’t have to hide anymore.” She smiled. Peter sighed. She didn’t actually understand what was happening, right? 

Peter smiled and finished brushing his teeth with Morgan. She was dressed up as well. Her dress was lilac, puffy at the bottom. The four year old had a love-hate relationship. Like most c  
children, she loved dressing up. But like all children, she loves to run. And a dress like this confines her quite well. 

She grabbed her brother’s hand as they walked into the living room where their parents waited nervously.  
“Are you guys ready to go?” Tony asked. Peter nodded and Morgan nodded (much more animated obviously.) “Well then it’s now or never.”

\--

“So just to get everything confirmed 100%, we do want to do this. We are okay with the ramifications that come with doing this.” Peter nodded. 

“Well then, you three will sign these forms just to get everything in writing,” the lawyer said. She had a short introduction to them, just as someone who worked in legal. Peter picked up the smooth complimentary pen. He leaned down to sign his name. He’d signed many things before, school permission slips mainly, but also thank you cards and school papers. 

But that was Peter Parker. He always signed Peter Parker because that’s who he was. But now he’s Peter Stark, the name he was born with. And in a few minutes, the whole world will know that. Everyone with a TV on watching the morning news while eating their granola will know. He didn’t know how to sign his name. 

“Something wrong Pete? Are you having second thoughts, because this is all up to you.” 

“I don’t know how to sign my name,” Peter whispered. Tony heard and his face dropped. 

“Just, write your name. It’s yours. It belongs to no one else. You get to forge your own path now. You get your own signature, and you don’t have to impress anyone with it. So grab that pen and forge your own path.” Peter blinked and realized that this was him. He does get his own path now. 

So he put the pen to the paper and flowed. He signed his name. It was legible, mostly. But it could be read. If someone looked at that paper they saw Peter Stark. And now they will. 

The studio was warm, hot even. Peter chewed on a glucose gummy. The interviewer, a new up and coming journalist, showed them around. 

“This here is where you will sit.” She pointed to a set of three chairs. She continued the tour but those chairs stuck in Peter’s mind. He thought about that spot while they put his makeup on. He thought about those seats up until he was sitting in one. Conveniently in between his parents. Tony reached over and squeezed his hand. 

“It’ll be okay, you lead the conversation. You get to control how far she goes.” 

“Live in two!” Someone sidestage said. Tony and Pepper had been on TV before, heck even Morgan was shortly after her birth. Just a quick hello before going into post-baby hibernation. Peter took some deep breaths. A minute to go. In and out Peter, everything will be okay. No more hiding right? 

“In ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three..” he mouthed the two and one. Live. 

“Good Morning America, today we are here with the Stark family in wake of photos surfacing of a young boy. We’re here with Tony, Pepper, and a new face. Would you like to introduce yourself?” Peter nodded, took a deep breath and spoke.

“My name is Peter. Peter...Stark.” 

“So Tony Stark and Pepper Stark are you parents.” Peter nodded. 

“Yeah…” 

“To those at home this must be a bombshell. The last we ever heard of Peter Stark was when he was kidnapped from his home. When were you returned to your family?” 

“September, just around the anniversary of well, you know.” 

“Of course, and would you like to tell us about how you were reunited with your parents, Peter?” He nodded. He thought back to as far as he could remember. 

“Well I was going to school. I hadn’t slept much the night before and I hadn’t eaten breakfast. I passed out the sidewalk. Someone dropped me off at the hospital. I don’t remember anything after that, obviously. But I do know that they took some blood. And that blood matched with some kid from a crime scene. I found out later that I was that kid.”

“Well it wasn’t that simple. There was a lot of time where things weren’t great. Peter grew up for years not knowing that we are his parents. We didn’t even believe it ourselves when we got the call that there was a match. He didn’t believe us at first.” 

“Yeah I totally freaked out. I mean if Iron Man walks into a room and says he’s your dad I think anyone would freak out.” 

“I know I would. But tell us Peter, what was life like before you found out about this?” 

“I really had a normal life. I thought I new who my parents were and how they died. I went to school, loved science, and watched television. I was just like every other kid. But one accident on the sidewalk and my life changes forever.” 

“And isn’t that true,” the interviewer said. She flipped one of the notecards and moved on. “I think we all want to hear your perspective on this,” she motioned to Tony and Pepper. “It’s hard to imagine the pain of losing a child, and for years knowing nothing. What was that like, deep down finding out that a kid was found with the blood of your son?” Pepper took a deep breath, fumbling with Peter’s hand. 

“At first I didn’t believe it. We thought that Peter was dead, that he was never coming back. We had another child and tried to forget about our- son.” The interviewer gave sympathetic eyes. Pepper squeezed Peter’s hand again. Tony could see her sadness so he took over. 

“We were just having a normal day, work, meetings, all that stuff. IT was very sudden when we got a call that our baby’s blood matched this kid in Queens. We obviously rushed over to the hospital. They sat us in a meeting room and told us everything they knew. They told us it was best to do this slowly. Tony had other ideas.” They laughed. 

“He snuck into the Emergency Room in a doctors’ coat. I wasn’t exactly ready for some stranger to wake me up being all ‘Peter do you know who I am?’” He said in a mocking voice. Tony chuckled.

“We agree that wasn’t the best approach,” Pepper said. The interviewer shifted her papers and cleared her throat. 

“So, Peter. And it’s okay if you aren’t comfortable answering this, but do you remember anything about your life before your abduction?” 

Peter took a deep breath, his mother grasping his hand. 

“A little. When I first moved into Stark tower we went and looked at some of my old things. I started remembering a few things like playing with Dad in the lab.” He took a breath. Peter knew what everyone wanted to hear. They wanted to know if he remembered. 

“I remember a little bit of those days. Flashes of being nowhere at all. But I was very young then.” 

“It must have been something you wanted to forget. But what happened to you was terrible. I have to ask if the kidnapper was found. Would you want to press charges, would you want that person to rot in prison?” Peter’s eyes widened. All he could hear were Bucky and Steve’s whispered, panicked, conversations. He remembered Bucky crying about remembering what hedid to Peter. 

“No,” Peter said quietly. “I wouldn’t. I can’t imagine my life if this didn’t happen to me. I would have been a totally different person. But this life, It’s probably not what my parents would have chosen for me, or what I would have chosen. But it’s where I am, and I’m not unhappy.” 

-  
A day after the interview, twitter had one obsession. The trending tag was filled with various #peterstark and #welcomehomepeter hashtags. 

“How are you feeling honey, anything different?” Pepper asked. They were sitting on the couch together, Morgan tucked away in Peter’s lap. 

“I feel lighter.” His parents smiled. “But, there’s something I need to do.” They looked at him inquisitively. He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to them. 

A list of names and addresses. A road trip map per say. A road trip that started in Queens, in a decently shitty apartment complex. He stood outside a door, specifically 202. Tony took out a dusty polaroid camera and snapped a photo. He knocked on the door. A young woman answered it. 

“Does the Schwatz family still live here?” 

“Who?” They closed the door. Peter crossed off the first names on the list. 

This continued on to two more houses, taking Peter’s picture outside but no one inside. 

He finally started meeting some of the people. Most could barely recognize him. But when he said his name was Peter Parker and they fostered him they knew who he was. Most just remembered that he was the science kid who always wanted a chemistry kit. 

It was when he returned to his first real family that the emotion came. The Carsons still lived at the same place. He rang the doorbell and a few moments later a boy of around seven, though he could be younger answered it. 

“Hello?”

“Hi, are you- Diego?” 

“How do you know my name?” 

“I know your parents, are they home?” He nodded and yelled for his mother. She came over quickly. She saw Peter standing lone at the door, and her eyes lit up. 

“Peter?” She said in disbelief. He nodded and accepted her hug. “You’ve gotten so big!” They hugged in almost silence for minutes. 

“What are you doing here?” She asked, genuinely curious. 

“Well, I guess I found my forever family. But they were already my family, and I guess I just recently found them again. Okay that was a mess, I found my parents.” 

“Your parents, but the Parkers died in a plane crash. Did you find their- remains?” 

“Have you watched the news lately, or been on twitter?” She shook her head. 

“Is there something I should know about?” Peter waved over to Tony and Pepper. They walked over into the doorway. Mrs. Carson’s hand went over her mouth in shock. 

“These- these are my parents.” 

“Oh my goodness! What happened, how is Tony Stark your dad?” 

“Well we just did a special on CNN, so the long version is there. But you are family, so I guess I can tell you the long story. My story.” 

She invited them into her home, bringing them to the living room. They sat down, Mrs. Carson’s eyes still wide from starstruck. 

“So I was born Peter Stark, in Malibu, California. For three years I lived in the Stark mansion with well-my parents. But when I was about three years old I was abducted. I was kidnapped from my home and taken to a strage place where I was tortured for weeks, maybe months.” Mrs. Carson’s face contorted, feeling the pain of Peter’s past trauma that he barely remembers. 

“But at some point, I was put in New York, later into the foster care system. I was told a story about these people, Mary and Richard Parker. I was told that they were my parents, and that they died in a plane crash. I knew everything about them. I have pictures of them. I knew these people. But it was a lie.”

“How did you find out that they were your parents?” She asked. 

“Well It was my second day with a new foster parents, and I was walking to school. I hadn’t exactly slept that night. So on the way I passed out. Someone dropped me in the E.R and they took blood. The blood matched with the crime scene which led them to one conclusion. And here I am.”

Mrs. Carson was still. Speechless. 

“I-I don’t know what to say. Can I hug you?” Peter nodded, falling into her opened arms. 

“I never wanted you to go away, Peter. I wanted to adopt you or keep fostering you. But with Diego coming, my mother wanted me to only raise my biological children. So I had to-”

“It’s okay, you were the closest to a mom I’ve ever had.” She held him closer. 

They spent some more time together before taking some photos and parting. Tony, Pepper, and Peter visited some of the other homes on Peter’s list, most being a quick interaction. 

Though by the end of the day, they were at the final name on the list. Mrs. Dunlap. Peter wasn’t exactly looking forward to seeing her. But there they were, the darkness of dusk coming upon them. But after a moment of hesitation he knocked on the door. Mrs. Dunlap answered the door with a grumble. 

“Who is it?” 

“Peter Parker. You fostered me about two months ago. I just wanted to say hi and get a picture.” 

“Oh Peter, I saw you on the news the other day. I just- I didn’t know. I wish I’d treated you better, I didn’t even visit you in the hospital. I can’t imagine, you must have been so scared.” She touched his arm in a manner that was almost loving. 

“I wanted to say- I want to say,” his voice drifted for a moment, the words not coming out. “I want to say thank you Mrs. Dunlap, you gave me a home when I didn’t have one. And I’m thankful.” 

“Well Peter, I’m glad that you found your forever home.” She hesitated for a moment before pulling him into a hug. Peter was surprised, but leaned into it. 

“I didn’t think that you would be my last. I thought that you would just be another footnote in the list, but if I wasn’t placed in your home… I don’t know where I’d be right now.” Pepper’s eyes watered, remembering what it was like when they first got the phone call that he was found. 

Peter said a final goodbye to Mrs. Dunlap before heading home, the sky completely dark now. And as Peter sat in the back seat he began to drift off to sleep, his eyes going half-lidded and eventually closed as sleep overcame him. He had no nightmares, no confusion. Peter knew who he was, finally. 

And for Tony and Pepper, they got to see their baby boy fall asleep in the car for the first time in ten years. Almost as if they had transcended time and gone back to Malibu, driving down the beach roads late into the evening. Peter falling asleep to the light music of the radio. Then there were no worries, and now it was just the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Oh wow, I can’t believe this is finished. I have been writing this for so long it feels like a lifetime! Sorry about my hiatus, I have been working a lot this summer and I was having some major writers block about this ending. But now I am back in school and the creative juices are flowing. 
> 
> But this is the end. Peter’s story of learning who he is has completed. I hope that everyone who read this enjoyed and I look forward to reading your comments. Thank you all so much and I hope I get some new WIPs (most likely Star Wars) out soon! 
> 
> L.S


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